The over 193 Member-Nations of the World Health Organisation’s newly created Mechanism for the international fight against spurious, substandard, and counterfeit medicines have congratulated Nigeria for the selection of the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii as the first substantive Chair of the Member State Mechanism (MSM).
Words of commendation and congratulatory messages to Nigeria over Dr. Orhii’s selection as Chair of the MSM on Substandard, Spurious, Falsely-labelled, Falsified and Counterfeit Medical Products (SSFFC Medical Products) came from United States of America, United Kingdom, European Union, Russian Federation, India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya and sister African countries at the second meeting of the world anti-counterfeiting body on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The high powered and coveted activities leading to the selection of the NAFDAC Boss as Chair of the MSM actually started in November, 2012 at a meeting convened by WHO in Buenos Aires, Argentina to discuss the structure, headship, tenure, work plan and other issues surrounding the new mechanism established by WHO in 2011.
Dr. Orhii, in his capacity as Chair presented the report of the steering committee of the MSM held in July this year to the plenary of the member-nations for consideration.
In his opening speech, Dr. Orhii expressed deep appreciation to all the member-nations for the confidence they reposed in him and promised to discharge his duties diligently.
He commended the efforts of the open-ended working group Chaired by Bruno Neves Silva of Brazil and other countries who have contributed immensely to the work of MSM.
Chairman of NAFDAC Governing Council, Professor John Ibu who was accompanied by a Council Member, Pharmacist Paul Enebeli to the General Meeting described the headship of the WHO-driven MSM as “an international acclamation and recognition of the global leadership of Dr. Paul Orhii in the fight against drug counterfeiting”.
Prof. Ibu said President Goodluck Jonathan and Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Christian Onyebuchi Chukwu are very proud of the honour the NAFDAC Boss has brought to Nigeria and would continue to support the Agency’s war against counterfeit drugs and other substandard regulated products.
The NAFDAC Chairman described Dr. Orhii as the greatest apostle of President Jonathan’s transformation agenda because of his achievements in the infrastructural development of NAFDAC and the introduction of the new cutting-edge technologies in the fight against counterfeit drugs.
Abubakar Jimoh
Director (Special Duties)
