As a part of the efforts to fight the inflow of pretend, adulterated and expired medication within the nation, the Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC) has seized phoney malaria medication value N1.2 billion.
Chatting with journalists, the director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martin Dotun, lamented that regardless of efforts by the company to rid the nation of pretend medication, unscrupulous merchants nonetheless import counterfeit medication into the nation for the consumption of unsuspecting members of the general public.
Based on Dotun, the imported pretend and expired medication have been hid inside car spare elements and have been seized in Lagos.
“As a part of their efforts to deceive our personnel, the importer instructed NAFDAC officers who confronted them alongside Oshodi-Mile 2 Expressway that the car contained spare elements, however when enforcement officers trailed the car to its vacation spot, it was found that the medication have been hidden among the many supposed car spare elements.
These are a part of the follow-up collection of operations, which we began a couple of months in the past with the raid of Aba, Onitsha and Idumota markets, the place we seized many medication. And I can guarantee you that this is not going to cease till the mandate from President Tinubu and NAFDAC DG, Dr Mojisola Adeyeye, to save lots of Nigerians from the menace of pretend medication is completed.
“You may think about how many individuals these would have impacted if these weren’t rapidly seized, particularly as they got here with completely different pretend tags bearing completely different labels, because the label would have misled folks into shopping for them as anti-malaria medication.”
“We will not depart any stone unturned till we stamp out such,” he famous.
Talking earlier, the officer who led the operation on August 29, 2025, Florence Uba, stated the seized medication have been labelled with completely different names.
“We noticed the lengthy truck loaded with supposed car spare elements. However I made a decision to comply with the car to the warehouse the place they have been offloading the supposed car spare elements. Although they tried to deceive us, telling us that it was merely spare elements, we, nonetheless, noticed that these 277 cartons of the medication have been inside them.
“On nearer look, we noticed they gave pretend declaration whereas the cartons carried completely different names, the packs of 277 carried completely different names, the sachets of the medication carried two completely different names, and till we do Laboratory check, we’re but to know the precise contents of these sachets.
“We have now right here what they tagged Diclofenac potassium enteric coated 50mg, Arthemeter/ lemufathrine 80/480 Mg-, Every pill supposedly comprises Arthemeter/ lemufathrine 80/480 Mg till it’s examined within the laboratory.”
