A market survey conducted by PUNCH has indicated that fake inhalers have flooded the Nigerian pharmaceutical market, putting asthmatic patients at higher risk of death.
This is coming barely a year after the British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline exited Nigeria.
The survey revealed that fake and unregistered inhalers have flooded Nigerian markets.
It reported a 28-year-old marketer, Rose Daniel, as expressing the trauma of coping with the side effects of an anti-asthmatic tablet, which she has reportedly gotten tired of.
“Every time she took the medicines, uncontrollable tremors sent shivers down her spine, making her lead a less productive life. But succour came when her consultant, eight years ago, prescribed an asthma preventer, Seretide Diskus inhaler, with zero side effects.
“However, following the exit of GSK last year, and the scarcity of the inhalers, the fear of a return to the daily tremors gripped Daniel’s mind.
“Determined to spare no cost, the Cross River indigene reached out to notable pharmacies across the country and eventually bought three packs to last her for many months, pending when normalcy would return and the drugs become available,” the newspaper reported.
Once the inhalers became available, Daniel told PUNCH Healthwsie, that she ensured she got her inhalers at a registered pharmacy she was sure sold genuine and approved drugs.
But one day, while at work, she saw a pack of Seretide inhalers with a colleague and wondered why the pack looked different from hers.
After a quick perusal of the pack, the truth hit her in the face.
“It had no NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control) Registration Number!” she said.
Daniel said she was grateful that she had ensured she had only bought her inhalers and other drugs from a trusted pharmacy store.
Following a tip-off from an asthmatic patient that fake and unregistered inhalers, Seretide inhalers, had flooded the market, PUNCH Healthwise embarked on a fact-finding mission to pharmacies and the drug market in Church Street, Idumota, Lagos State where the information was confirmed.
