The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) destroyed almost N500 million worth of counterfeit and expired items, including medications, food, and cosmetics, among other things, on Wednesday.
According to Anaedoonline.ng, the agency’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, while some of the commodities were taken, others were voluntarily surrendered to the agency.
She explained that the agency destroys such items to prevent them from being re-circulated on the market.
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During the demolition exercise on Wednesday, NAFDAC stated that fraudulent and expired items worth over N500 million were destroyed, adding that the activity, which took place in Abuja, was an agency’s nationwide routine exercise.
According to this site, some of the commodities destroyed include psychoactive and controlled substances such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarials, herbal snuff and herbal remedies, and drugs confiscated from drug hawkers.
Others included Spaghetti, vegetable oil, and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as a 1 by 40ft container of unlicensed Faurecia instant-powered milk handed over to the agency by Nigeria Customs Services.
Cosmetics like as creams, lotion, and pomade, as well as skin-lightening creams seized from SPAS and beauty centres, were included among the destroyed products, as were chemicals such as phoney pesticides and medical gadgets.
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Other goods destroyed were expired and unwholesome products that were voluntarily turned up for disposal by complaint corporations, non-governmental organisations, and the Association of Community Pharmacy of Nigeria.
During the exercise, the NAFDAC boss, who was represented by Mr Francis Ononiwu, the NAFDAC Director of Investigation and Enforcement, said, “I have said on several platforms that drug counterfeiting is an act of economic sabotage, and it also represents a serious threat to public health, and NAFDAC, under my watch, has been repositioned to combat this menace.”
“The agency has adopted a proactive approach by engaging political, traditional, faith leaders, journalists and other Nigerians to sensitise their wards on the dangers of dealing with substandard and falsified medicine.
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“I wish to use this medium to urge all and sundry to be on the lookout for spurious and counterfeit medicines, unwholesome foods and other regulated products and report same to NAFDAC.”
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