Drug warrior Dora Akunyili
Dr. Dora Akunyili and her family were driving down a rural road in Nigeria three years ago when snipers opened fire on her car. "The back windscreen was shattered," she says. "A bullet pierced through my head scarf and grazed my scalp." Akunyili had been targeted by a drug gang–but not the kind that sells heroin or cocaine. These drug dealers traffic in counterfeit medicine–ineffective at best, deadly at worst–and as director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Akunyili's job aims to put them out of business.
By Michael D. Lemonick, Gilbert Da Costa
November 2005