Sunny_bobo: Just in case you don't know, 70% of medicine consumed in Nigeria goes through the Idumota market and it is still the Igbo traders that run the market.

Of course I know that as a matter of fact...since I once worked in the industry.

Also I know as a matter of fact that there are more checks-and-balances on the activities of those Idumota traders, unlike the head bridge markets that is always a bedlam with chaos reigning in every part of the market on any day.

I have once experienced where M & B Thalazole and Metrodinazole were faked by the company's distributors in that same head bridge and mixed with the genuine packs purchased from the company.

Of course they were arrested.

We should condemn what ever is bad...irrespective of how those involved may be related to us.

Livinus.c:
okwanu ogodo mmadu ka ewu n'ata,What federal govt should d is to set out a committee dat ll fish out d fake from d original so dat pple biz ll not b cripple

see you. is it not the duty of the genuine ones to protect their business by exposing the fakes ones or not even allowing them in at all. if none happens, they are all culprits, starting with the chairman of the killers association.

I say for all those people in that association that have been dealing in fake drugs and using the proceed to send their children to school, e no go beta for dem, they will bury their children with their hands one by one if they do not repent. Lmaooooooooooo

Billyonaire: The market should be closed permanently. Whoever wants to deal on drugs should hire a certified pharmacist and build a dedicated drugstore.

Fullstop!

The above is impossible for now. Close the various open drug markets in Nigeria for a month and see the number of deaths that would be recorded in our hospitals due to lack of supplies. The hospitals, pharmacies and chemists get their supplies from these markets.

Should the market be sanitised? Yes

Moreover, the amount of fake drugs being brought into the country by Alhajis via the Northern borders makes what happens in Onitsha a child's play but nobody talks about that. I know because it's an industry I know very well about.

wheel barrow: Why should anyone allow 10,000 illiterate quacks to administer drugs??

These guys are murderers and if they continue in their senseless protest I will advise Peter Obi to deal with them the same way he dealt with those MASSOB criminals.

read the post again patiently,
where do you see illiterattes quacks?

ALAKE_OF_EGBA:

Quit acting and asking stvpid questions already....you have no reason to comment if you won't add value to the thread.

Am not going to allow you to turn this thread into your usual Igbo vs Yoruba thing.

Those in Lagos are more regulated and highly monitored.....that is why they are not going into the streets with the government decision to restrict the sales of drugs from open markets.

The Idumota drug market is not tightly monitored dude just that those there seem to be saner than the ones in Onitsha. The authorities have tried severally to close the Idumota market but have not been able to prove in court that Idumota is a ' market' because it is just a residential area with shops on the ground floors of the buildings.

What the authorities have done us to stop issuing new licences to operators in that part if Lagos Island.

Sunny_bobo: The Idumota drug market is not tightly monitored dude just that those there seem to be saner than the ones in Onitsha. The authorities have tried severally to close the Idumota market but have are not able to prove in court that Idumota is a ' market' because it is just a residential area with shops on the ground floors of the buildings.

What the authorities have done us to stop issuing new licences to operators in that part if Lagos Island.

I can assure you that the Idumota traders are better monitored by the Nadfac officials who can easily gain access into the shops and warehouses of these traders unlike Head bridge market that those guys will threaten you with machete at the slightest provocation...that couple with the facts that pharmaceutical sales representatives of the companies are more enlightened than most of their counter parts that deals with the Onitsha Head bridge distributors.

Guy...quit it...we know as e dey go for Head bridge....i was once an active participant in the market.

bakynes:

So the 10,000 drug traders selling their drugs in an open market all have licenses to sell drugs? If they have license in the first place they wldnt even be selling in an open market. So that makes them sell Fake drugs.

see this learner.
Nothing is exclusive in life.
Is there anything that prevents a licensed person from selling fake drugs ? And must a non-licensed person sell fake drugs? My Pikin no get licence? Wetin come happen?


.
U ppl are just talking trash, its obvious u are all here for tribal talks.
If these words 'fake', 'unlicensed', 'illiterate' are in the OP's text, highlight them and show me.

Sunny_bobo: Just in case you don't know, 70% of medicine consumed in Nigeria goes through the Idumota market and it is still the Igbo traders that run the market.

And you're proud you deal in fake drugs.

Orlando Owoh:
And you're proud you deal in fake drugs.

Are you proud of 'MY PIKIN' producer?

Just to clear the air here, it is good that we know that there are different classes of fake drugs. You have;

1.) Clones: Here, the fake contains the exact active ingredient like the Original but just branded as the original so as to benefit from the brand popularity eg. Panadol is simply a brand of paracetamol owned by GSK and is chemicaly not different from Emzor or M & B paracetamol as both contain the same active ingredient but sales at about 500% price dufference. A faker can go to China, get a company to manufacture paracetamol with the right dosage of active ingredient, get them to brand it as Panadol and then sell it at the market price of Panadol. This is fake but poses no health danger

2.) some produce half strengths eg. Labeling 250mg as 500mg.

3.) Some do not even contain any active ingredient at all

4.) Some label a different drug as something else. Someone has been caught before labelling paracetamol as an anti malarial medicine.

Sunny_bobo: Are you proud of 'MY PIKIN' producer?

. Lolz what does dis my pikin drug cure self?

Sunny_bobo: Just to clear the air here, it is good that we know that there are different classes of fake drugs. You have;

1.) Clones: Here, the fake contains the exact active ingredient like the Original but just branded as the original so as to benefit from the brand popularity eg. Panadol is simply a brand of paracetamol owned by GSK and is chemicaly not different from Emzor or M & B paracetamol as both contain the same active ingredient but sales at about 500% price dufference. A faker can go to China, get a company to manufacture paracetamol with the right dosage of active ingredient, get them to brand it as Panadol and then sell it at the market price of Panadol. This is fake but poses no health danger

2.) some produce half strengths eg. Labeling 250mg as 500mg.

3.) Some do not even contain any active ingredient at all

4.) Some label a different drug as something else. Someone has been caught before labelling paracetamol as an anti malarial medicine.

The two in bold are the commonest type of fakings and they are the ones that are far more dangerous wreaking havoc to Nigerians.

Until we all agreed that selling drugs in open and un-regulated markets by regulatory authorities encourage number 2 and 3, then our health system will keep taking a beating....and almost every Nigerian will rather prefer to go to Europe or India for the most basic ailment.

I don't see the need for the protests .
Government wants to ban sale of drugs in the open market. That's fine .
The value chain line from manufacturer - wholesaler - retailer - consumer should be strictly monitored.
For both imported drugs and locally made ones, there should be an approved list of manufacturers . ( there probably is already )
The manufacturers should have a list of their approved distributors ( wholesalers) in each state.
The wholesalers in turn should have a list of retailers within and outside the state whom they sell to.
And finally the retailers should be able to dispense O.T.C drugs to anybody while prescription drugs on doctors orders only
Hospitals, chemists and pharmacies qualify as retailers and should be able to buy directly from wholesalers they are registered with

Any business man can be a wholesaler/distributor , but only experts should be allowed as retailers

Its easy to enforce for local manufacturers. For the imported drugs however, the customs service should ensure that drug cargo coming in from blacklisted countries should be promptly confiscated. E.g if a ship sails in from Somalia carrying drug cargo and the FG/ministry of health does not have any approved manufacturer in that country, then such a cargo should be seized promptly and the importer arrested for knowingly doing business with a non-compliant country.
Even in such a country where FG has about one or two approved manufacturers for export to Nigeria, the customs will still need to engage the services of pre-shipment inspectors. Because some unscrupulous business men could buy cheap fake drugs and change the packet to resemble that of an approved manufacturer's in that same country.

Locally, there should be periodic checks by mystery shoppers who inspect the retailers' and wholesalers' stock periodically

I believe some of these structures are already in place. The problem is when the govt decides to make sweeping changes without offering any viable alternatives. ( Just like the fuel subsidy removal of last year. Subsidy removal in itself is a good thing but the refineries were not working so the purpose was defeated as we would have had to continue importing fuel )

This is a good development. This should not stop in Anambra alone. If a pharmacist is not allowed to open a pharmacy in the open market,while on earth will all these illiterates open? Dispensing fake medicines

I think dis is a welcome development by the government to sanitise the drugs industry,I think the market shud be close and any body dat wants to operate a wholesale or retail drug biz shud screen b4 gettin a licence n also fit enof to run d buzness

Adm. Yamamoto:


I am sure you've never lived a day of your life outside Nigeria or you are just being partisan with your tribal people who even Dora Akunyuli was almost killed by them because of NAFDAC's fight against fake drugs. Have you ever taken Panadol that worked in 10 mins? Never because it has been over-diluted and all the active ingredients are below the threshold to be effective. Over here, when I take Tylenol it works very fast and very effectively so much so that when I am coming to Nigeria, I better remember to buy the drugs I will use in Nigeria. It is not news that capsule antibiotics are very ineffective in Nigeria because your people would replace it with dustin powder or mix it so it is less effective and poison to the system ultimately. If you like deny it, but no other parts of Nigeria are known with fake drugs. Not north or south west! The ideology that drives fake drugs (and similar crimes) is exclusively igbo: MONEY is ALL and ALL and they MUST get it at any cost - their life or the life of their children, family or others. Prove to me that you as an ibo man have not been told that if you are NOT RICH, no one will listen to you in your village, in the family meeting, in your clan, etc. This is why during Christmas and similar events, ibos go to the village to show off and put up the facade that they are now rich after living in Hausaland or Yorubaland.

Most fake drug hawkers I happen to have met are Northerners or Yorubas. Igbos usually own a shop and hence more risky to sell fake.

2ndly you need to get it off your head about Igbos claiming to be richer after going to Hausaland and Yorubaland as that is pure falsehood. Ask any Igbo and he'll tell you that the richest in their village reside and do business in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Onitsha, Aba, Abuja and Kano.

ALAKE_OF_EGBA:

The two in bold are the commonest type of fakings and they are the ones that are far more dangerous wreaking havoc to Nigerians.

Until we all agreed that selling drugs in open and un-regulated markets by regulatory authorities encourage number 2 and 3, then our health system will keep taking a beating....and almost every Nigerian will rather prefer to go to Europe or India for the most basic ailment.

I agree with you but you will also agree with me that the incidence of fake drugs has reduced drastically within the last decade as there are more checks now.

You will also agree with me that products belonging to Multinationals and parmaceutucal companies owned by people who did not start their 'journey' in these open markets are more likely to be faked. That's why I do not buy products of well known names like Beecham etc from Pharmacies. I'd rather buy medicines belonging to names like Embassy, Richmore, Mayfield, Greenlife, Clarion etc. These people started from 'ime afia', have their boys on ground in Lagos, Onitsha, Aba, Kano etc. they can easily detect when their product comes into the market through a source other than theirs and hence it is difficult for fakers to fake their products.

Only here in Nigeria will an unqualified person be learning drug sales. This is totally unacceptable. Only pharmacists should be allowed to sell,distribute and compound drugs in the first place. Patent medicine vendours should be struck out.

Abagworo:


Most fake drug hawkers I happen to have met are Northerners or Yorubas. Igbos usually own a shop and hence more risky to sell fake.

2ndly you need to get it off your head about Igbos claiming to be richer after going to Hausaland and Yorubaland as that is pure falsehood. Ask any Igbo and he'll tell you that the richest in their village reside and do business in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Onitsha, Aba, Abuja and Kano.

How come those ones are not protesting?

The more you guys make attempt at tribalizing this issue...the more you expose your hypocrisy

ALAKE_OF_EGBA:

How come those ones are not protesting?

The more you guys make attempt at tribalizing this issue...the more you expose your hypocrisy

They are not protesting because there is no threat to their business. They move from street to street, motor park to motor park. Garage to garage unlike those who have fixed shops that can be sealed.