I watched a film recently, titled ‘’valhesing’’, if you have seen this film, you would recall that Dragulia killed the good doctor when he ( the doctor) would not allow him to use the giant – his invention, for the Dragulia’s personal purpose of giving life to his offspring- vampires. Dragulia felt that with Igor, he would accomplish what the doctor had started, as time went by, they tried the invention on their own, but failed, and at a point Igor exclaimed “it seems like the good doctor took all the knowledge with him to the grave”. Today, I was going through some papers I had, and I came across one that had Dora Akinyuli on it, I could not help tears rolling down my cheek. I recalled some recent events.
Mobile authentication: As a pharmacist, especially those in community practice, I am sure, you have at one time or the other been accused of stocking fake product, simply because of network failure. Sometimes, you discover that a particular network would not go through, but how do you want to convince a patient that it is/was network failure and not fake product. When Dora was at the helm of affairs at NAFDAC, I think there was no mobile authentication, but we had less fake product, we were confident that any product with NAFDAC number is genuine, and they truly were genuine, so most times patient do not even bother as long as the product has NAFDAC number.
Too many generic: The rate at which new brands of drugs are coming into the Nigeria market is very alarming and calls for concern. The rate is so much that activities of Nafdac seems suspicious. From all sort of bitters to all kinds of flushers. If all these products pass through the proper process, I do not think the rate of new entrants would be this alarming. When Akinyuli was there, there was high level of sanity, even the ordinary man on the street felt it.
Let us do a comparison: Today 29th of June 2015,I took a look at NAFDAC website, FDA and European medicine agency, see what I found;
  NAFDAC’s latest news.
• NAFDAC seals chocolate Royale, published 28th of May 2015
• NAFDAC arrests 3, seals 4 shops over fake and unregistered medical devices in Anambra published Tuesday, 19 May 2015 10:11
• INAUGURATION OF NATIONAL FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE (NFSMC) Written on Friday, 15 May 2015 09:4
 FDA’s latest news•June 26, 2015 – OtisMed Corporation former CEO sentenced for shipping adulterated knee replacement cutting guides
• June 22, 2015 – FDA approves new antiplatelet drug used during heart procedure
• June 18, 2015 – FDA allows marketing of new device to help the blind process visual signals via their tongues.
 European medicine Agency latest news
• Meeting highlights from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) 22-25 June 2015 published 26/06/2015
• EMA fast-tracks enzyme replacement therapy for lysosomal acid lipase deficiency. Published 26/06/2015
• First HDAC inhibitor for treatment of multiple myeloma recommended for approval in EU published 26/06/2015
I want you to look at the date of those publications, the contents of those headings and convince that NAFDAC under Paul Orhi is not sleeping. None of those NAFDAC ‘’latest’’ news is less than a month.
Conclusively,NAFDAC has lost that reputation that precedes it numbers, it has lost the confidence of the ordinary man on the street in consuming NAFDAC registered product, NAFDAC has become a shadow of its old self, NAFDAC has become passionless, rudderless and self-serving. Who would wake this sleeping agency, who would re-enforce labelling of agege bread, who would ensure we consume iodized salt, who will restore public confidence in NAFDAC, who…who…whooo!!!. It seems to me that the good pharmacist, Prof.Dora Akinyuli has taken all the passion, and selflessness with her to the grave, may God continue to rest her soul in Jesus name

evanscheck:
I watched a film recently, titled ‘’valhesing’’, if you have seen this film, you would recall that Dragulia killed the good doctor when he ( the doctor) would not allow him to use the giant – his invention, for the Dragulia’s personal purpose of giving life to his offspring- vampires. Dragulia felt that with Igor, he would accomplish what the doctor had started, as time went by, they tried the invention on their own, but failed, and at a point Igor exclaimed “it seems like the good doctor took all the knowledge with him to the grave”. Today, I was going through some papers I had, and I came across one that had Dora Akinyuli on it, I could not help tears rolling down my cheek. I recalled some recent events.
Mobile authentication: As a pharmacist, especially those in community practice, I am sure, you have at one time or the other been accused of stocking fake product, simply because of network failure. Sometimes, you discover that a particular network would not go through, but how do you want to convince a patient that it is/was network failure and not fake product. When Dora was at the helm of affairs at NAFDAC, I think there was no mobile authentication, but we had less fake product, we were confident that any product with NAFDAC number is genuine, and they truly were genuine, so most times patient do not even bother as long as the product has NAFDAC number.
Too many generic: The rate at which new brands of drugs are coming into the Nigeria market is very alarming and calls for concern. The rate is so much that activities of Nafdac seems suspicious. From all sort of bitters to all kinds of flushers. If all these products pass through the proper process, I do not think the rate of new entrants would be this alarming. When Akinyuli was there, there was high level of sanity, even the ordinary man on the street felt it.
Let us do a comparison: Today 29th of June 2015,I took a look at NAFDAC website, FDA and European medicine agency, see what I found;
  NAFDAC’s latest news.
• NAFDAC seals chocolate Royale, published 28th of May 2015
• NAFDAC arrests 3, seals 4 shops over fake and unregistered medical devices in Anambra published Tuesday, 19 May 2015 10:11
• INAUGURATION OF NATIONAL FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE (NFSMC) Written on Friday, 15 May 2015 09:4
 FDA’s latest news•June 26, 2015 – OtisMed Corporation former CEO sentenced for shipping adulterated knee replacement cutting guides
• June 22, 2015 – FDA approves new antiplatelet drug used during heart procedure
• June 18, 2015 – FDA allows marketing of new device to help the blind process visual signals via their tongues.
 European medicine Agency latest news
• Meeting highlights from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) 22-25 June 2015 published 26/06/2015
• EMA fast-tracks enzyme replacement therapy for lysosomal acid lipase deficiency. Published 26/06/2015
• First HDAC inhibitor for treatment of multiple myeloma recommended for approval in EU published 26/06/2015
I want you to look at the date of those publications, the contents of those headings and convince that NAFDAC under Paul Orhi is not sleeping. None of those NAFDAC ‘’latest’’ news is less than a month.
Conclusively,NAFDAC has lost that reputation that precedes it numbers, it has lost the confidence of the ordinary man on the street in consuming NAFDAC registered product, NAFDAC has become a shadow of its old self, NAFDAC has become passionless, rudderless and self-serving. Who would wake this sleeping agency, who would re-enforce labelling of agege bread, who would ensure we consume iodized salt, who will restore public confidence in NAFDAC, who…who…whooo!!!. It seems to me that the good pharmacist, Prof.Dora Akinyuli has taken all the passion, and selflessness with her to the grave, may God continue to rest her soul in Jesus name

Ehya! I nearly shed a tear. I believe the issue of building strong institutions comes into play here. Dr. Dora, of blessed memory, was a strong and a passionate personality that drove that agency to achieve great strides during her tenure. Nafdac was strong then, simply because she was strong. Unfortunately, nafdac isn't really living up to its billing today because the agency depends on the personality of whoever is leading it to succeed. This is very bad. We need to focus on building strong institutions so that irrespective of who is at the head, the agency will still function optimally.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising Dr. Paul (the current head of the agency). I believe he has tried his best to be as innovative and proactive as possible. Neither am I saying he is a weak personality. I'm just saying the passion Dr. Dora used in pursuing the core objectives of nafdac is not there anymore. That's all.

The oronsaye white paper report recommended the merging of nafdac and the institute of public analyst. What are your thoughts towards this?

Nafdac needs to be re- evaluate the reasons why the institution was set up in the first place, there really need to go back to the drawing board and make this right..