The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said the agency seized 277 cartons of fake and unregistered Malamal Fort malaria drugs worth over 1.2 billion in Lagos.

NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martins Iluyomade, disclosed this on Thursday.

He said the drug was discovered inside a container alleged to contain only spare parts at a warehouse along Ilasa-Oshodi.

Mr Iluyomade said the drug was concealed in a carton of enteric-coated diclofenac potassium 50 mg and was manufactured by Shanxi Tianyuan Pharmaceuticals Group in China.

He explained that the recent discovery by the agency was part of its ongoing nationwide efforts to rid the country of fake and unregistered drugs.

Mr Iluyomade said NAFDAC Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye, with support from the presidency and health ministry, was committed to reducing fake and substandard medicines to the barest minimum.

The director, who noted that the seizure had prevented 500,000 Nigerians from taking the counterfeit anti-malaria medicine, added that the drugs would be tested to ascertain the actual content.

He said. “This enforcement action started before today. It’s a follow-up of enforcement operations launched early this year by NAFDAC in Lagos, Aba and Onitsha. The container that concealed these unregistered drugs was trailed from Apapa, where it was declared to contain spare parts, but our operation team, led by Florence Uba, a deputy director, tracked the container to a warehouse. A carton of the concealed malaria drugs contains 18 packs, with 100 sachets in each of the packs. Ordinarily, you would think that what is inside the pack is diclofenac, a painkiller, but upon opening the pack, we saw something else, and this raised their curiosity. Imagine the number of doses we have here and how many households would have taken these doses, thinking they are taking malaria tablets in this country.”

Mr Iluyomade said that further investigation revealed that the person behind the importation had relocated from Onitsha to China after NAFDAC clamped down on the Onitsha drug market.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the agency to safeguard the health and well-being of Nigerians in its fight against the sale and distribution of unregistered and counterfeit medicines in the country.

He stated, “The NAFDAC Director-General is leaving no stone unturned in uncovering the root causes and providing answers to the questions Nigerians have been asking.’’ 

(NAN)