The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has that the agency seized, destroyed unwholesome foods worth N5billion across the country.
She made this known at a press conference to mark her fouth year anniversary in Abuja, saying the agency intercepted twenty-five (25) containers of Tramadol worth one billion, seven hundred and eight million,seven hundred and fifty thousand Naira (N1,708,750,00) and destory more than thirty containers of tramadol and other unregistered products worth more than 198 billion naira on the street.
“The Agency secured the conviction of one of the distributors and the court ordered the destruction of the seized consignment and arraigned three persons involved in the distribution of the banned Tramadol at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
“Shut down of three pharmaceutical companies over poor distribution practice of codeine-containing syrup.
“The Agency arraigned the distributor of Codeine cough mixture exposed in a BBC documentary on Codeine abuse aired in May 2018 at the Federal High Court, Lagos. Prior to this, other persons had been arraigned for the sale and distribution of counterfeit Codeine containing cough mixture.
“In 2020, the Agency backlisted two companies from India that falsified a registered product and delisted the Nigerian company involved. In addition, six other local companies were shut down due to resistance to Good Manufacturing Practices compliance.
“To further protect the health of consumers, the Agency destroyed fake, adulterated, counterfeit, banned and unwholesome NAFDAC Regulated Products worth four billion, two hundred and sixty thousand naira (N8,000,260,000) in exercises across the nation, while also clearing its Apapa warehouses that had been filled to the brim since 2013.”
She noted that over twenty prosecutions of people responsible for counterfeiting or trading in substandard falsified medicines have taken place with most of them ongoing with a few fined or sentenced to imprisonment.
“The agency is ensuring that SFs and counterfeited medical products are removed from the market and also has procured 40 units of detection devices that can be used for on-the-spot detection of SFs in the market.”
