A statement by NAFDAC’s spokesperson, Mr. Anslem Okonkwor, said the raid was coordinated by the Abia State office of the agency as part of a nationwide enforcement operation to rid markets of fake and counterfeit regulated products.
Chief Regulatory Officer of the agency in the state, Mr. Olisa Okeke, who led the operation, said the red coloured drug named “Amino-fit”, containing 10 tablets in each sachet and with batch number B00313D, was manufactured in April 2013 with March 2016 as its expiry date.
He noted that the dealers decided to clean the original expiry date and write a new date on the pack after the drug had expired so that they could continue selling it.
He said, “Some days ago,we got a tip-off that some persons were re-writing (re validating) expiry dates on amino-acid drug “Amino Fit” and we went to investigate it at 21, Abagana Street, Aba.
“Our aim was to find and mop up the re-validated drugs. When we got there,we met a lady who operates a hair salon in the building.
“While speaking to the lady, a young man suspiciously answered the question posed to the lady from an opening behind a locked gate.”
Okeke said that the team then forced the door of the shop open and found the re-validated products inside stacked in a corner.
According to him, the suspects escaped through the fence into another compound behind the building.
He, however, said that 14 cartons of the re-validated expired pharmaceutical products were confiscated while a search for the culprits involved in the business continued.
He revealed that the premises had been sealed pending the time the culprits or the owner of the property would come to give account of what happened in the building, adding that the screen-printing equipment that the suspects were using to re-validate the products were also recovered during the operation.
The NAFDAC boss in the state therefore advised the public to take careful look at drugs before purchase to avoid buying potentially dangerous expired products.
“Buyers of food and drug products around us now have to be extra-careful because unless you are very careful, and look very carefully, you will not see that they changed the expiry date,”he said.
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