Nigeria's NAFDAC destroys fake drugs worth $3.8m

Nigeria's government has destroyed $3.8m worth of counterfeit antimalarials and other drugs seized in conjunction with local authorities.

Enforcement actions by the Kano state government and Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yielded millions of drugs. The 10 trailer loads of fake drugs were burnt on a dumpsite in Kano under the supervision of the NAFDAC director general.

As well as hundreds of packets of the antimalarial chloroquine, Nigerian officials burnt a banned metamizole painkiller and 14m tablets of a drug abused by commercial drivers, Punch reports. The 14m tablets had a value of around $850,000.

Authorities seized the drugs during a month-long anti-counterfeiting drive. The push comes as Kano moves towards the date when the local government will outlaw the sale of drugs at the Sabon-Gari Market. 

Banning the sale of drugs at the market is part of an effort to make "those merchants of deaths vacate the state," Kano state governor Rabiu Kwankwaso said. NAFDAC is supporting the push to stop the spread of counterfeit drugs in a state it views as a hub for the supply of fakes.