The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned patent medicine dealers in Imo State against selling counterfeit, unregistered and expired medicines to unsuspecting members of the public.
The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, issued the warning on Friday in Owerri during a sensitisation workshop on pharmacovigilance and drug distribution safety organised for members of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED).
Represented by the South-East Zonal Director, Dr Festus Ukadike, Adeyeye cautioned medicine vendors against prioritising financial gains over public health, warning that the sale of dangerous drugs could cost lives.
She stressed that any unregistered medicinal product is considered fake, urging dealers to obtain their supplies only from authorised sources.
The NAFDAC boss also condemned illegal practices such as altering product labels, changing expiry dates and purchasing medicines from suspicious suppliers offering unusually low prices.
She reiterated that the sale of banned, unregistered and controlled substances remains prohibited, specifically mentioning high-dose tramadol variants, anarcha and discontinued suspensions among products being illegally circulated.
According to her, expired medicines must never be sold or administered, warning that they cannot be made safe through the alteration or revalidation of expiry dates.
Adeyeye disclosed that NAFDAC had strengthened its enforcement operations through intelligence-driven surveillance and handheld digital scanners to monitor drug supply chains, identify illegal warehouses and shut down non-compliant businesses.
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She warned that dealers involved in falsifying drugs or manipulating expiry dates risk immediate business closure, product forfeiture, heavy administrative sanctions and criminal prosecution.
Speaking during the workshop, an Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer of NAFDAC, Dr Cletus Agwu, urged wholesalers and distributors to maintain proper storage conditions, temperature controls and accurate documentation to preserve the quality of medicines.
He also advised distributors to purchase medical products exclusively from authorised manufacturers and supply them only to legally permitted entities.
Similarly, the NAFDAC State Coordinator, Mrs Helen Okanya, encouraged medicine dealers to report suspected adverse drug reactions and substandard products through the agency’s digital MedSafety App.
She explained that pharmacovigilance was essential for monitoring the safety of medicines after they had been introduced into the market.
Meanwhile, the Imo State Chairman of NAPPMED, Mr Cyprian Okonkwo, commended NAFDAC for the sensitisation programme and pledged that the association would extend the knowledge gained to medicine vendors across the state’s 27 local government areas.
He assured that the association would continue working with NAFDAC to eliminate fake, expired and substandard medicines from the drug distribution chain.
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