NAFDAC praises TruScan role in Nigerian counterfeit fight

Thermo Fisher Scientific's handheld Raman spectrometer TruScan has been used in operations leading to the seizures of more than 60,000 counterfeit medicines since being deployed in Nigeria a few months ago.

In one notable case earlier this year, a shipment of fake Lonart DS antimalarial tablets, worth around 10 million naira ($67,000), was intercepted by using the TruScan device, which was formerly sold under the Ahura Scientific brand.

Dr. Paul Orhii, the director-general of Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said recently that TruScan was used in that case to immediately test suspect product and identify it as having the incorrect chemical composition.

Fake antimalarials are cited as one reason for the increase in drug resistance seen in malaria parasites in many parts of the world.

As a result it was possible to move quickly to arrest those involved in inveigling the consignment into the supply chain, he said. NAFDAC has created a short video to highlight the TruScan project, which is one of a number of approaches used by the agency to tackle medicines counterfeiting. It is available to view here.

Prior to the deployment of TruScan, any suspect samples had to be sent to a central laboratory for testing, which could take days to get a result. The system is being used at Nigeria's border control agency, and by NAFDAC inspectors for on-the-spot screening of medicines in pharmacies, patent medicine stores and market stalls.

Duane Sword, vice president, marketing and international Sales at Thermo Fisher Scientific, told SecuringPharma.com that NAFDAC is using TruScan to monitor dozens of different pharmaceutical products known to be targeted by counterfeiters.

The agency is also developing its own library of scans of genuine products to allow its inspectors and other enforcement agencies to compare with scans taken in the field.

There are ancillary benefits coming from the deployment of the scanners, according to Sword. "The technology is finding counterfeit medicines, but is also identifying substandard authentic product, including products that have degraded because the supply chain or quality control has been compromised and expired medicines that have been repackaged."

The total number of TruScan units being deployed in Nigeria is not being disclosed, but Sword expects that additional instruments will be heading to the country as the technology's use moves from the pilot to a full deployment by the national regulator.

The approach seems to be paying off. Nigeria's aggressive stance on counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals - initiated under former NAFDAC director Dora Akunyili and expanded by Dr. Orhii - has driven the proportion of fake medicines in circulation down from 42 to 16 per cent.

Meanwhile, while NAFDAC is the first regulator to deploy TruScan, it appears that two other African countries are now working on following Nigeria's lead, said Sword. For the moment, however, their identity is not being revealed.
 

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