By Francesca Hangeior
The Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the Association of Community Pharmacists has called on the State Governor, Umo Eno, to re-activate and fund the state Counterfeit and Fake Drug Monitoring Committee as a public health emergency to tackle issues of counterfeiting and smuggling of drugs in the state.
This was part of the resolutions contained in a communique issued at the end of the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of the Association with the theme, “Medicine Security in an Unstable Economy: The Role of Community Pharmacists”
The communique which was signed by the Association’s chairman, Tony Anderson, and made available to our correspondent on Monday, raised concern over the high rate of drug counterfeiting especially in a depressed economy and stressed the need for monitoring to ensure medicine security.
The communique partly reads, “The conference observed that at a misery index of 85%, the Nigerian economy is depressed and this may lead to an increase in drug smuggling and counterfeiting.
“Against this backdrop, the authentication of medicines, traceability, tamper-proof packaging, quality control, secure transportation, storage and monitoring is essential to ensure medicine security.
“Conference therefore called on the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno to consider the re-activation and funding of the Akwa Ibom State Counterfeit and Fake Drug Monitoring Committee as a public health emergency.”