The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned patent medicine dealers in Imo State against distributing counterfeit, expired, unregistered and potentially lethal medicines to members of the public.
The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, delivered 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 NAFDAC’s South-East Zonal Director, Dr Festus Ukadike, Adeyeye cautioned medicine vendors against prioritising financial gains over public safety.
She stressed that products without NAFDAC registration were fake and should not be sold.
“Any unregistered product is fake. If you sell unregistered products, it means you are selling fake products,” she said.
NAFDAC Raises Alarm Over Expired and Banned Medicines
Adeyeye condemned practices within the drug distribution network, including changing product labels, illegally extending the expiry dates of medicines and purchasing supplies from questionable itinerant vendors offering unusually large discounts.
She reiterated that the prohibition on dangerous, unregistered and controlled substances remained in force.
Among the products she identified were high-dose tramadol variants, anarcha and discontinued suspensions, which she said were still being illegally circulated at the grassroots.
The NAFDAC director-general warned dealers against reselling medicines after their expiry dates.
“Expired medicines have no second life; once they have expired, they must never be given a second chance to endanger human lives,” she said.
Digital Surveillance to Track Illegal Drug Distribution
The agency has introduced intelligence-led surveillance and handheld digital scanners to monitor medicine supply chains, identify illegal warehouses and take action against vendors operating outside regulatory requirements.
Adeyeye warned that dealers involved in falsifying expiry dates or selling counterfeit medicines would face business closures, confiscation of products, administrative penalties and criminal prosecution.
She said the measures were intended to address dangerous distribution practices and prevent unsafe medicines from reaching consumers.
NAFDAC Outlines Proper Storage and Distribution Requirements
During a presentation on Good Storage and Distribution Practices, NAFDAC Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, Dr Cletus Agwu, highlighted the need for wholesalers and distributors to maintain quality standards throughout the medicine supply chain.
Agwu advised distributors to obtain medical products only from authorised manufacturers and supply them exclusively to businesses and individuals legally permitted to receive them.
He also emphasised the importance of appropriate storage conditions, temperature monitoring, quality-control procedures and accurate record-keeping.
“Whatever is not documented is not done,” he said.
Patent Medicine Dealers Urged to Report Adverse Drug Reactions
NAFDAC’s Imo State Coordinator, Mrs Helen Okanya, addressed medicine safety monitoring in a separate lecture on pharmacovigilance.
She explained that monitoring must continue after medicines enter the market because no medicinal product is completely safe for every person under all circumstances.
“No medicinal product is entirely safe for all humans in all places at all times; we must always live with some measures of uncertainty,” Okanya said.
She urged patent medicine dealers to report suspected adverse drug reactions, product quality concerns and substandard medicines through NAFDAC’s digital MedSafety App.
Okanya said the information provided through such reports would help the agency identify and address public health risks, rather than serve as a means of finding fault with or punishing operators.
She also disclosed that NAFDAC had organised similar sensitisation programmes for patent medicine dealers in the Okigwe and Orlu Senatorial Districts of Imo State.
NAPPMED Pledges Cooperation With NAFDAC
The Imo State Chairman of NAPPMED, Mr Cyprian Okonkwo, commended NAFDAC for organising the workshop, describing the training as beneficial to members of the association.
He said the programme had improved participants’ understanding of regulatory requirements, proper medicine storage and their responsibilities towards consumer safety.
Okonkwo pledged to share the knowledge gained with medicine vendors across all 27 local government areas of Imo State, particularly on recognising and rejecting prohibited products.
He also assured NAFDAC that the association would continue working with the agency to remove counterfeit, expired and substandard medicines from the distribution network.
