In its ongoing fight against the influx of fake and substandard regulated products, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has taken delivery of 15 containers of substandard and falsified pharmaceutical products and tomato paste imported through Onne Port in Port-Harcourt.
NAFDAC, in a press statement on Sunday, signed by its Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, noted that the fake products are “estimated to have the street value of N20.5bn.”
The agency said the consignment, which comprised 11 containers of various unregistered, banned pharmaceutical products, as well as four containers of unwholesome tomato paste, was handed over at Onne Port, Port-Harcourt, on Saturday to the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, by the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, as part of the institutional collaborative synergy between the two organizations.
“Among the various substandard regulated products seized were 1.3 million bottles of codeine syrup (a highly controlled prescription-only medicine), 12.6 million tablets of Tramadol, a highly addictive prescription-only drug product used for the management of post-operative pain in adults, as well as 9.3 million tablets of substandard and falsified (branded) Diclofenac tablets (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory prescription drug used for the management of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
