Drug Counterfeiting: Experts call for comprehensive national Intellectual Property policy
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By Chioma Obinna
For Nigeria to take full advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, experts have called on the Federal Government to immediately establish a comprehensive national Intellectual Property, IP, a policy that would address what they described as “fragmented framework” for IP protection in Nigeria even as they regretted that Nigeria does not produce up to 1 per cent of generic medicines in the world
At a media parley on Counterfeiting and IP Infringement in the Pharmaceutical Space”, the stakeholders maintained that getting an effective policy and strategy was the only way to benefit from the African free trade otherwise Nigeria will end up with only pockets of activities.
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Experts have alleged that Nigeria loses an estimated sum of N200 billion annually to counterfeit medicines, a sum that excludes what it loses to substandard drugs, adding that the proliferation of fake and counterfeit medicine has detrimental effects on the economy and on society.
This was part of the submissions by a panel of experts at a media parley on intellectual property (IP) infringement in the pharmaceutical sector organised by the American Business Council and some partners.
According to the panel, a market survey by Pfizer revealed that 40 per cent of Pfizer medicines in Nigeria are sourced from illicit parallel importation (a form of counterfeiting) while a 2011 World Health Organisation study found that about 64 per cent of anti-malarial drugs in Nigeria were fake, adding that the counterfeit and substandard drug distribution network is so expansive that over 50 per cent of drugs, food and drinks sold in open markets are counterfeit.