Awash in Fake Drugs, Nigerians Fight Back
Text Messaging Will Enable Consumers to Check Authenticity; Spate of Fatalities Included Antifreeze-Laced Cough Syrup
LAGOS, Nigeria—Biofem Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a Nigerian medicine distributor, wanted to arrest a slide in sales after a counterfeit ring targeted its best-selling drug. Sproxil Inc., a start-up founded by a Ghana-born Ph.D. student at Dartmouth, promised to do what Nigerian authorities could not: help companies and consumers detect fake pharmaceuticals.
Sproxil’s founder, 28-year old Ashifi Gogo, overcame initial skepticism and a lack of funding to persuade investors to back a technology that offers a quick counterfeit-drug test. The technology could pave the way for wary foreign drug makers to enter the huge African market. The market includes Nigeria, Africa’s biggest country by population but one rife with scams and scamsters.
“Initially it was challenging because venture capitalists run for the hills when they hear Nigeria,” Mr. Gogo said in a telephone interview. “They don’t even care if you’re making gold.”
The company has developed technology that allows customers to use their mobile phones to check on newly purchased drugs. Using scratch-off labels and ID numbers, customers can send a code via text message to a database in the U.S. to check whether the medicine they purchased is authentic. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest mobile-phone market, with more than 70 million users.