NAFDAC Seals 3 Medicine Stores

National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Tuesday, in Asaba, Delta, sealed one pharmacy and two patent medicine stores for stocking and selling fake drugs.

The stores are Tonasons Patent Medicine shop at 32, Ezenei Avenue, Ochison Medicine shop located at 403, Nnebisi Road and Keneeve Pharmacy at Dossy Shopping Place.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three shops were sealed during an inspection of drug stores in the state capital by NAFDAC officials.

The Deputy Director, Port Inspection Directorate in the agency, Mr. Adefolarin Adeleke, who led the inspection team, told newsmen that 95 percent of the drugs on sale in the affected shops were fake.

To detect the fake and adulterated drugs, Adeleke said that the officials conducted on-the-spot test to establish their quality and also determine the drugs not registered with NAFDAC.

He said that the campaign was focused on anti-malaria and anti-biotic drugs, among others .

He disclosed that the exercise, which is ongoing, had been carried out in 23 states in the country.

The inspection team, which also covered some communities around Asaba, impounded fake and adulterated drugs in many pharmaceutical and patent medicine stores.

Adeleke said that the drugs were impounded, because their quality could not be guaranteed.

He added that they were confiscated for being unregistered, “not properly preserved and some have been banned by the Federal Government”.

“Some of these drugs are not supposed to be displayed on the shelves,” he said.