No fewer than 30 medicine dealers including Pharmacists who allegedly contravened the regulatory laws of the National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on fake and sub-standard drugs have been arrested by the Delta State command of the Agency.
?Reports said there had been a cleansing? exercise of illicit drugs dealers in the state in the last few weeks during the arrests were made.
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However, victims of the raids have described the action and fines by the NAFDAC officials/Taskforce led by Mr. Adefolarin Adeleke as outrageous, inhuman and unacceptable.
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Expectedly, the Agency has for weeks now raided various patent medicine dealers including pharmacists who have been allegedly found wanting in dispensing drugs? to unsuspecting buyers and generated serious heat between NAFDAC and the victims who said they were vilified for no just cause.
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President of the National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED), Comrade Lucky Chukwuma told newsmen in Asaba that members of the association have been law abiding in the fight against counterfeit drugs. He absolved them of blame on the discovery of low standard drugs in their shops and called on NAFDAC officials to beam their searchlights on importers and wholesalers whom he claimed were responsible for the circulation.
As it were, the taskforce on health in the state has sealed off two patent medicine stores in Asaba and its environs for allegedly selling fake drugs to unsuspecting members of the public.
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The chairman of the state Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharmacist Mrs. Grace Ese Ekhuemelo assured Deltans of her? determination to put? an end to the menace of fake drugs, expired drugs and unlicensed medicine dealership in the state.
While noting with dismay the activities of illicit drug dealers, Pharmacist Ekhumolo said machines used in detecting fake drugs could fail, adding that some of the drugs allegedly said to be fake may not be fake, but drugs imported but were not registered with NAFDAC.
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