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Objectives:
1. To understand the perception of various group of individuals in Nigeria about the drugs produced/consumed in the country
2. To find out the preferred type of drugs (locally produced or foreign) bought by consumers or prescribed by medical practitioners in Nigeria.
3. To identify the major contributing factors to the production and distribution of low-quality drugs in Nigeria
4. To identify the control measures used by NAFDAC in ensuring the production of good quality drugs
5. To determine the degree to which the objective of drug quality improvement has been achieved in Nigeria.
Methodology:
Research Methodology is to be the major aspect of an investigation work as it helps the overall work in the proper direction to reach a suitable outcome. The researcher’s core consideration is to choose the most appropriate methodology to carry out the work in an appropriate manner. The investigation into actual action is based on the evaluation of analyzing the impact NAFDAC has on drug quality improvement in Nigeria. The aim is to investigate the major reason for fake drug consumption and the impact of NAFDAC in improving drug quality in Nigeria. A descriptive research design would be adopted by the study. A descriptive survey centers on describing the important facts about people, their opinion, motivations, and attitudes. The researcher chose the descriptive research design because the main aim of the research is to describe the impact or role of NAFDAC in drug quality improvement or control. It will allow the researcher to get the opinions of the workers in pharmaceutical, doctors, consumers, pharmacists and NAFDAC staffs about their views on the role of NAFDAC in the control of drug quality in Nigeria. The research design determines the strategy chosen and as this study follows a descriptive research style, the most suitable research strategy to implement is a quantitative strategy. In addition, implementing a quantitative approach would allow the researcher to collect data from a good number of individuals as the researcher wished to study a large population.
Findings:
Findings from the study have revealed how individuals from different professional backgrounds who are involved in the production and distribution of medical products in Nigeria, as well as the random consumers, perceive medical products produced in Nigeria, the factors influencing the production and distribution of low-quality drugs, the role of NAFDAC in improving drug quality, and the current situation of Nigeria with respect to drug quality. The study had five objectives that summarily boiled down to understanding the role of NAFDAC in improving drug quality in Nigeria. From the first objective, it was concluded that the respondents, mainly the NAFDAC staff and the medical practitioners believe that drugs produced in Nigeria are of low quality. Also, findings from the second objective pointed out that the professionals, as well as the consumers, prefer to recommend and /or purchase foreign-made drugs to the locally (Nigerian) made ones. Furthermore, it was deduced from the third objective that the high cost of good quality drugs, inadequate laws, or poor enforcement of the existing drug quality control regulations and the inadequate drug distribution monitoring system were the three major factors influencing the production and distribution of low-quality drugs in Nigeria. More so, setting up enforcement officers for control and routine inspection, provision of mobile authentication of original drugs to help consumers identify which drugs are fake or original are some of the control measures put up by NAFDAC to combat fake drug production and distribution in Nigeria; Finally, findings from the last objective revealed that there was an equal percentage of agreement and disagreement as to whether the problem of fake drug production and distribution has reduced in Nigeria in the last 10 years; it also revealed that majority of the consumers indicated they cannot ascertain whether the drugs they purchase are fake or original.
Analysis:
The Data used for this research was obtained through responses from the questionnaires disseminated to a different group of people ranging from Professionals working in the pharmaceutical industry, Pharmacists, NAFDAC staff to the drug consumers, to ascertain their opinions concerning the drug situation and the role of NAFDAC in the improvement of drug quality in Nigeria. Various segment was used to analyze this dissertation topic in accordance with the research objective and the questionnaires that was distributed and from the results it showed that there was high rate of low quality drugs and most people preferred to use drugs from abroad than from Nigeria.
Some of the questionnaires are as followed:
1. What is your opinion about the quality of medicinal products in Nigeria?
a. Do you agree or disagree with the statement that medicinal products in Nigeria are low quality?
b. Do you agree or disagree with the statement that pharmaceutical companies based in Nigeria are producing and distributing low quality medicine?
2. As a medical professional what is your experience (observation) in the use of medicinal products that is produced in Nigeria or medicinal products that are manufactured in different countries?
3. Do you think drugs produced in Nigeria are of better quality than that produced abroad?
Conclusion:
In conclusion, NAFDAC is doing its best to combat the problematic drug situation in Nigeria, but more efforts and awareness are still needed to make them more effective as to help to stop the spread of fake drugs and also to protect various group of individuals. Also, from my research in conclusion it shows that most individuals still need an awareness to the distribution and purchasing of counterfeit medicinal products and the control measures put in place by NAFDAC will need to be improved. The researcher, therefore, recommends that the cost of producing drugs in Nigeria should be subsidized by the government as these would make good quality drugs affordable for the consumers so that they would have no reason to purchase drugs of lower quality. More stringent drug laws/policies and punishments for defaulters should also be enforced to discourage fake drug production and distribution in the country. Again, the researcher further recommends that NAFDAC should increase the awareness for the use of the mobile authentication service so as to help the consumers identify the fake drug products from the original ones. In these ways, the problem of the production and distribution of fake medical products would be reduced in Nigeria. The awareness of counterfeit medicinal products should be well known by individuals as NAFDAC work on all there control measures that have been put in place by improving on it and also they should work on the officials put in place for distribution of medicinal products to check all medicinal products are well numbered and labelled appropriately.