By Adadainfo
The national president of the National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED), Prince Joel Odoh, Wednesday, said his association has internal structures to check fake drugs among members.
Prince Odoh, who spoke at Ezimo, further thanked the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control for making identification of fake drugs easy.
He said, “We commend NAFDAC that numbers drugs. Our members know how to identify fake and counterfeit drugs. Anybody selling them simply wants to do that. There are numbers inscribed on these drugs for easy identification.
“Our members know that getting these drugs from open markets may make them vulnerable to fake drugs. I urge them to be very careful by simply observing those precautions. Some of us who get drugs from manufacturers directly also check these facts meticulously.
“We have stringent measures. If it is the government that arrested our erring members, we won’t go there. If it is our task force that arrested the person, because we have task forces at unit, state and national levels, after dealing with the person in accordance with our rules, the victim will be handed over to NAFDAC for further actions.”
He said the association is well organised because of transparency in the system. Quoting him, “The problem we have in this country is to assume that you can do it alone as a leader. It leads to total failure. Governance is collaborative. We do set up committees: the executives will be working, reports will be discussed and holistic decisions taken.
“Leadership is not the problem, it depends on the way one carries it. There won’t be any problem if one listens to the views of members, and ensures that good reasons prevail.”
