Against the backdrop of the global leadership of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in the fight against counterfeit drugs, Nigeria has been appointed Chair of the International Steering Committee of the new Member State Mechanism (MSM) for combating Substandard, Spurious, Falsely-Labeled, Falsified and Counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products.
permanent Representative in Geneva, Switzerland Ambassador Umunna Humphrey Orjiakor was unanimously appointed by over 100 delegates from six regional blocs’ Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) at a 3-day top level international meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which ended on 21st November, 2012.
The new Member State Mechanism (MSM) is a novel platform created under the auspices of WHO to frontally tackle the global problem of spurious, substandard and counterfeit medicine, in which the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii has been widely acknowledged as the leading crusader.
Each of the six regional blocs of the WHO consisting European Union, African Union, Arab Union, USA and Latin American countries will produce two Vice-Chairs under the headship of Nigeria to steer the affairs of the MSM Committee (Bureau) for the next one year.
Highly elated Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Orhii expressed the profound appreciation of the government and people of Nigeria to the Director General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan and all the delegates for the recognition and honour done to Nigeria with her landmark appointment as Chair of the new Member State Mechanism (MSM).
Dr. Orhii said the appointment of Nigeria as Chair of Member State Mechanism (MSM) has reiterated NAFDAC’s concerted effort at combating spurious, substandard and counterfeit medicine through the use of cutting-edge technologies like TRUSCAN, Mobile Phone Scratch and Text Service as well as Deep Infra-red technology such as the Black Eye.
The scope of work of the new steering committee of the Member State Mechanism (MSM) include broadening access of member nations to affordable medical products, strengthening their regulatory capacity and quality control laboratories, clarifying the scope of SSFFC and enhancing exchange of information and experience among drug regulatory authorities worldwide.
Ambassador Orjiakor who presided over the 3-day meeting in his capacity as the appointed Chair of the Member State Mechanism (MSM) declared that he will not let Nigeria down in the discharge of his duties, diligently, without fear or favour.
Abubakar Jimoh
Deputy Director (Public Relations and Protocol)
