The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday destroyed counterfeit drugs worth N2 billion in Kaduna.

Speaking during the exercise at a dump site in Kaduna, Martins Iluyomade, the director of investigation and enforcement at NAFDAC, and chairman of the Federal Task Force on counterfeit and fake drugs and unwholesome processed foods in Nigeria,  said the destruction was aimed at preventing seized products from finding their way back into circulation.

“We are here today to destroy some counterfeit medicines that some people brought into this country through faking other people’s products.

“The current management of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control will not take that lightly,” he said.

According to him, NAFDAC has zero tolerance for counterfeiting, and everybody in the business will know that they are in hard times at this period.

He added that the destruction exercise was done in collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Nigeria Customs Service.

He said, “It is a joint effort. We discovered that some people are bringing in these products through unapproved rules and using different means to clear them and declare them wrongly to Customs so that they can pass.

“The information was shared, and we swung into action to apprehend the products coming in through Kano Airport.”

He said that within the past two months, they were able to seize 503 cartons of Pregabalin capsules IP 3000mg, which is 11 million doses.

“We are destroying these drugs to show accountability, and to show that nobody is here to play games with the health of Nigerians.”

He cautioned Nigerians on how some manufacturers clone drugs already registered by taking the original drugs to different countries to be cloned.

Also speaking, the Director of the North-West Zone, Dadi Mullah-Natim, said the zone regularly conducts inspections of approved manufacturing facilities to ensure compliance with good manufacturing practices for regulated products intended for public use.

He said, “We go routinely to check their facilities. We check their processes, the stuff they have, their distribution networks, and stores during our post-marketing surveillance activities to ensure that the products that leave the factory are also in the same condition in which they were produced in the warehouses where they are being distributed.

“We checkmate whatever product is produced by production facilities in Nigeria that have been approved by NAFDAC.”

He urged the public to stop buying products without receipts, adding that “Receipts must be documented in such a way that we can trace where that product is coming from.”

(NAN)