NAFDAC Asks Shipping Companies to Help Fight Counterfeit Drugs

Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently held a conference to announce changes to its practices that are aimed at providing quality regulation standards for the country’s exports.

In addition to working to improve the quality of Nigeria’s exports, it was announced at the conference that NAFDAC would hold workshops for courier and shipping companies to help them identify and track fake products, including counterfeit drugs, according to the Daily Sun.

Dr. Paul Orhii, the director-general of NAFDAC, spelled out the reasoning behind the new initiative.

“It is very relevant to state at this juncture that the officers of the Agency had in recent times intercepted massive consignment of fake drugs concealed in unaccompanied baggage at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport,” he said. “At the seaport, NAFDAC officers had in the past impounded containers of fake drugs concealed with NAFDAC non -regulated products.”

Orhii told the shipping companies that if they were better able to identify phony products it would make the nation safer.

“We reason that if these products are rejected by you on the basis of no evidence of NAFDAC certification and observed irregularities associated with the importation, the fake products will never leave the borders, airports and seaports of these overseas countries for Nigeria,” he said.