The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a stern warning to patent medicine dealers in Imo State against the distribution and sale of lethal, counterfeit, substandard, and expired drugs to unsuspecting consumers.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the charge on Friday in Owerri during a sensitization workshop on pharmacovigilance and drug distribution safety, organized specifically for members of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED).
Represented by NAFDAC’s South-East Zonal Director, Dr. Festus Ukadike, the Director-General condemned profit-driven operators who prioritize financial gain over human life through hazardous distribution practices.
”Any unregistered product is fake. If you sell unregistered products, it means you are selling fake products,” Adeyeye declared, emphasizing that commercial interests must never justify endangering public health.
She decried ongoing unethical practices across the distribution chain, including the illegal revalidation of expired shelf dates, label tampering, and reliance on unverified itinerant suppliers offering steep discounts.
The NAFDAC chief reiterated that the ban on dangerous, unregistered, and controlled substances remains fully in force.
She specifically cited high-dose tramadol variants, unapproved mixtures (anarcha), and discontinued oral suspensions that continue to be illicitly circulated at the grassroots level.
”Expired medicines have no second life; once they have expired, they must never be given a second chance to endanger human lives,” she stressed.
To enforce compliance, NAFDAC has deployed intelligence-driven surveillance alongside digital handheld scanners to monitor supply chains, raid illegal warehouses, and shut down non-compliant premises. Operators involved in criminal date-revalidation or the sale of falsified medicines face immediate business closure, product forfeiture, heavy administrative fines, and criminal prosecution.
Addressing operational standards, Dr. Cletus Agwu, Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer at NAFDAC, delivered a paper on “Good Storage and Distribution Practices,” urging wholesalers and vendors to procure medical supplies strictly from authorized manufacturers and trade only with licensed entities. He stressed that distributors must maintain strict quality control, temperature management, and proper documentation, noting: “Whatever is not documented is not done.”
In a separate presentation on “Pharmacovigilance,” NAFDAC Imo State Coordinator, Mrs. Helen Okanya, underscored the importance of post-market monitoring. Noting that no medicinal product is entirely risk-free, she urged medicine dealers to actively report suspected adverse reactions and substandard drugs via NAFDAC’s digital MedSafety App.
She assured vendors that adverse event reporting is aimed at resolving public health issues rather than penalizing compliant operators.
Okanya added that similar sensitization campaigns have already been conducted for patent medicine dealers across the Okigwe and Orlu Senatorial Districts.
Responding on behalf of the association, the State Chairman of NAPPMED, Mr. Cyprian Okonkwo, commended NAFDAC for the initiative, stating that the workshop significantly enhanced members’ understanding of regulatory compliance, safe storage, and consumer safety obligations.
Okonkwo committed to stepping down the training across all 27 Local Government Areas in Imo State, with a focus on identifying and rejecting banned substances. He assured NAFDAC of NAPPMED’s sustained partnership to eliminate falsified and expired drugs from the supply chain and protect public health.
