A University don, Prof. (Mrs.) Justitia Nnabuko, over the weekend declared that substandard products, as well as non-registered pharmaceutical and drug products were still circulating in the South-East zone of Nigeria.
Nnabuko, who is the Dean, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, stated this while delivering the 104th inaugural lecture of the University.
The professor of marketing regretted that despite committed efforts of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and other regulatory agencies, some desperate businessmen were still flooding the country with unwholesome products.
According to her, “NAFDAC is rated as one of the top eighteen medical regulatory agencies in the world and the fourth on the African continent.
“However, monitoring of pharmaceutical activities has not yielded the much-desired transparency in the activities of drug firms as drug products assessment and registrations have not been effectively achieved in the South-East State of Nigeria.
“Many pharmaceutical facilities and drug products were yet to receive authentic registrations. The lives of the regulators had been threatened in the course of carrying out monitoring operations”.
While also lamenting the existence of “so many quacks in the marketing profession”, she observed that such persons were aiding fake drug dealers by marketing same to the unsuspecting members of the public.
“Given that lots of quackery takes place in business, there are ethical standards, which marketers are expected to apply, but many people pushing products and services are not professional marketers and many organizations use them.
“So, I call on the federal government of Nigeria to make enabling laws to drive the implementation of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria’s mandate on regulating the practice of all marketers in the country.
“Related government agencies like the NAFDAC, the Standards Organization of Nigeria, (SON), and the Consumer Protection Council, (CPC) need also to be empowered in the area of enabling factors, like legal backing in implementing their mandate”, she stated.
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