Ezeh Ambrose Igwekamma, ACPN national chairman, spoke on Friday during a press conference to announce the association’s 44th annual conference.

The event, themed ‘Technology Integration, Personalised Care: The Future of Community Pharmacy Practice’, is scheduled to take place from July 22 to 27 in Awka, Anambra state.

The national chairman said over 50 percent of drugs in circulation are fake and substandard, despite official figures suggesting a lower percentage.

He expressed concern that the current regulatory framework is inadequate to tackle the menace of fake drugs and food products.

“The NASS must, as a matter of urgency, amend the existing Fake Drug and Unwholesome Food Act to become a much more potent act of parliament,” he said.

“Apart from the dangers that Nigerians were familiar with in the case of fake drugs, the fake drink conundrum is assuming a gargantuan tens-of-billion-naira business championed by modern-day merchants of death.”

Igwekamma cited a study by the faculty of pharmacy, University of Lagos, which revealed that 49.6 percent of fake drugs were traceable to open drug markets, and 32.8 percent were directed to patent medicine vendors.

“The influx of fake drugs, foods, and especially drinks in Nigeria has become a major source of worry in contemporary times,” he said.

“Despite some modest efforts by NAFDAC, the influx of fake drugs and unwholesome food and drinks has surged very significantly in the last five years when the federal task force and the equivalent state task forces have almost become moribund with negligible regulatory output.

“We desire to save consumers of health from the almost 5 million unregistered drug-selling outfits that dot both the rural and urban centres in Nigeria.”