TheCable

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has launched a database for registered and certified drugs for sale and distribution in Nigeria.

Mojisola Adeyeye, the director-general (DG) of NAFDAC, presented the database tagged “NAFDAC Green Book”, at a media briefing in Abuja, on Monday.

Adeyeye said the database contains a list of 6,432 registered pharmaceutical products, adding that it would be made accessible to  the public by January 2024 for verification of drugs.

Adeyeye said the agency destroyed 135 truckloads of fake, counterfeit and spurious seized  and damaged/expired products, willingly submitted by stakeholders at an estimated street value of about N16 billion.

She also said NAFDAC carried out several raids in nine states in the south-east and south-south regions, adding that counterfeit Diageo products worth over N38 million, were recovered.

She said several places were also raided in Abuja and Lagos where  counterfeited products worth over N200 million were seized.

Adeyeye attributed the rising menace of fake drugs to a bad economy, which she said is fueling production and sales of substandard products in the country.

She said NAFDAC is planning to phase out production and sales of alcohol in sachet by the end of January 2024.

The DG said NAFDAC is also implementing a gradual phasing out of some harmful insecticides and pesticides.

The agency had recently cracked down on fake wine factories in Abia state.

During the recent raid, 10 suspects were arrested while the markets were sealed pending the outcome of investigation.