Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye said ‘enough is enough’ to recalcitrant fake drug peddles, as warehouses full of fake and expired medicines were uncovered in Aba, Idumota and Onitsha.
The agency uncovered a major operation depot dealing in expired and falsified drugs at Umumeje village, Osisioma Ngwa area of Abia State.
Resident Media Consultant, NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola, in a statement, said the expired medicines were repackaged and revalidated for resale, posing a significant health risk to consumers.
According to the statement, the seized items consist of expired potassium chloride, allergy medications, immune boosters and cholesterol treatments. Machines used to rebrand and alter expiry dates were also discovered on-site.
The depot was discovered when NAFDAC operatives raided the facility in collaboration with a joint security team as part of its intensified crackdown on counterfeit medicines which commenced on Monday.
During the raid, some individuals were arrested, but the prime suspect remains at large. Despite efforts to reach him, he showed no concern for his detained family members.
“Later in the week, NAFDAC enforcement officers and security forces uncovered another drug depot at 269 Faulks road, Aba. During the raid, operatives discovered machines used to rebrand and alter the expiry dates of medications, along with a large quantity of rebagged containers and fraudulent packaging materials”.
“This operation followed extensive data collection and intelligence gathering, which revealed large-scale repackaging of counterfeit drugs in the market”.
At Onitsha, the agency uncovered and seized fake, expired and falsified drugs (14 trucks loaded) at Ogbo-Ogwu Bridge Head Market in Onitsha. The operation, which commenced on Monday, February 10, has already led to many shop raids, revealing a disturbing volume of adulterated and substandard medications worth billions of naira.
NAFDAC’s investigation showed the market as a hub for repackaging and revalidating expired medicines, that are often sold to unsuspecting consumers with fraudulent claims of authenticity.
Director, South East Zone, NAFDAC, Mr Martins Iluyomade said several containers bearing fake NAFDAC approvals were among the seized drugs.
In the first week of the enforcement operation, NAFDAC screened and sealed over 3000 shops inside Open Drug Market Idumota in Lagos. Items discovered were vaccines in dilapidated and unventilated rooms sealed with iron sheets in very filthy environment.
Others were banned products like large consignment of Analgin injections, diverted free HIV and retroviral drugs, expired drugs kept for revalidation and unregistered drugs, etc.
The agency was able to evacuate 12 trucks of illicit pharmaceuticals . Furthermore, empty packs of cartons of expired unregistered antimalarial injections were discovered inside a packing shop with the vials removed. Various brands of Codeine Cough Syrup and Tramadol 225 were discovered in a warehouse within the market, away from the pharmaceutical section where other products are sold.
The director-general, however, insisted that the agency would not rest on its oars until the market is completely sanitised. She said, ‘enough is enough’, we shall not look away while a few disgruntled elements in the society continue to kill unsuspecting consumers through substandard and falsified medicines.
The NAFDAC boss explained that the extended enforcement operation targets the three major markets simultaneously in Idumota, Onitsha and Aba, which distribute a significant percentage of medicines in the country. “The goal is to stop the sale of counterfeit, substandard, expired and rebranded drugs that pose significant health risks to Nigerians.”
