Drugs, vaccines, cosmetics and expired food items worth over N2 billion have been destroyed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Kano, as well as Awka, Anambra State.
The agency, in a release issued on Sunday, stated that the destruction was done to eradicate fake drugs and other spurious regulated products from circulation in the country.
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Counterfeit drugs and spurious food products worth over N1.4billion seized from both the South-East and South-South zones were destroyed in Awka on Thursday, while similar dangerous drugs and unwholesome food items worth N613m were destroyed at the Kalebawa dumpsite, along Kazaure-Daura road, Dambatta, Kano.
It was gathered that the operatives of the agency had combed the nooks and crannies of the three geo-political zones of the federation, namely, North-West, South-East and South-South, to mop up expired drugs and unwholesome food products before the destruction took place.
The NAFDAC director-general, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, who supervised the exercise, explained that the destroyed products included substandard, fake, falsely labelled medicines, unwholesome processed food products and cosmetics seized from manufacturers, distributors and importers.
She disclosed that the expired drugs were handed over voluntarily by complaint companies, non-novernmental organisations, trade unions, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and the National Association of Proprietary and Patent Medicines Dealers (NAPPMED).
Others, she explained, were those confiscated by the Nigeria Customs Service but violated, unregistered drugs, improperly stored vaccines and tramadol. According to her, the list also included Rohypinol intercepted on the Benin-Asaba expressway and other fake medicinal products intercepted at different times.
Adeyeye said the products included drugs such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, anti-malaria, herbal remedies, psychoactive, controlled substance.
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