Even as many African countries are in the process to enact anti-counterfeit acts which may harm the generic exports from India, Nigeria has assured Indian pharma industry and government officials that it would exclude patent issues and generic drugs from the definition of counterfeit medicines.

Senior officials of the Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration have extended this assurance during their interactions with the industry representatives and officials from pharma and commerce departments, during their recent visit to India. The assurance came after Indian officials alerted them against the designs of multinational companies to get such laws enacted in the African countries.

Kenya has already enacted such a law while Uganda and Zambia are in advanced stages of making such legislations which can be harmful to the genuine generic industry of the country. Indian industry hence cautioned Nigeria about the 'sinister' plans by the MNCs and falling prey to their designs. NAFDAC director general Dr Paul Orhij categorically said Nigeria would take care of these issues while making legislation.

Nigeria is in the process of restructuring the regulatory system in the fight to check growing counterfeit drugs there. The delegation was in India in the wake of recent seizure of fake drugs originating from China with 'made in India' labels. They held extensive discussions with industry and officials from the different departments.

"We are restructuring and modernising our regulatory process and will encourage local production and build capacities of the local industry to meet the WHO requirements," the NAFDAC chief said.

After the failure at the WHO to redefine counterfeit drugs as piloted by IMPACT and netting very little success with the recent seizure of drugs in Europe, the multinationals have been adopting backdoor means to stifle the Indian generics from going abroad, according to the leaders of Indian industry.