The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has uncovered a serious operation depot dealing in expired and falsified medicine at Umumeje village, Osisioma Ngwa, Abia State.
In a press release on its X deal with on Friday, NAFDAC revealed that the unlawful operation was being run from a number of buildings close to the Ariaria International Market.
The company said that expired medicines had been repackaged and revalidated for resale, posing a major well being threat to customers.
Seizure of expired medicines and counterfeiting tools
During the raid, officers confiscated massive portions of expired potassium chloride, allergy medicines, immune boosters, and ldl cholesterol remedies.
Machinery used to change expiry dates and rebrand medicine was additionally found, indicating a classy counterfeiting operation.
While some people had been arrested in the course of the raid, NAFDAC confirmed that the prime suspect stays on the run. The company famous that regardless of makes an attempt to contact him, he confirmed no concern for his detained members of the family.
Federal Government’s crackdown on counterfeit medicine
The operation was performed in collaboration with safety companies as a part of the federal authorities’s crackdown on counterfeit medicines.
NAFDAC reaffirmed its dedication to eliminating substandard and falsified medicine in Nigeria, including that it’s presently reviewing its legal guidelines to impose stricter penalties on offenders.
More Insights
NAFDAC’s ongoing crackdown on faux and substandard medicines just lately led to the sealing of the Idumota open drug market in Lagos, together with the Ariaria drug market in Aba and the Onitsha drug market in Anambra.
The company’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Mr. Shaba Mohammed, said that the week-long enforcement train is occurring concurrently throughout the three markets, which function distribution hubs for over 80% of medicines in Nigeria.
- He defined that the operation goals to deal with merchants dealing in counterfeit, substandard, expired, and rebranded medicine that endanger public well being.
- As a part of the train, over 5,000 retailers, together with warehouses and packaging shops, can be inspected to establish and take away substandard medical merchandise.
- During the operation, NAFDAC confiscated seven truckloads of suspected falsified medicine, expired medicines, and medicines labeled with photos of human elements.
- Additionally, on February seventh, the company introduced the destruction of counterfeit, expired, and substandard prescribed drugs—together with alcohol, cosmetics, and different shopper items—price N4.7 billion throughout Nigeria’s South-South area.
- The destruction train, performed at a waste disposal website in Port Harcourt, highlights NAFDAC’s dedication to eliminating harmful medical merchandise and unwholesome shopper items from the market.
- Among the destroyed objects had been falsified medical merchandise, expired medicine, substandard meals components, and unregistered cosmetics. Some of those merchandise had been voluntarily surrendered by producers and distributors, whereas others had been seized by means of coordinated enforcement actions.
NAFDAC’s investigations additionally uncovered a number of illicit warehouses in Port Harcourt, the place expired alcoholic drinks had been being fraudulently re-labelled and reintroduced into the market.
Watch the video right here:
NAFDAC Uncovers Massive Depot for Expired Drugs in Aba
NAFDAC has uncovered a large-scale operation dealing in expired and falsified medicine at Umumeje village, Osisioma Ngwa, Abia State. pic.twitter.com/oIAZIfKF6G
— NAFDAC NIGERIA (@NafdacAgency) February 14, 2025
