LAGOS, NIGERIA — Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, has linked the counterfeit medicine crisis in Nigeria to three decades of institutional regulatory gaps. Speaking on September 9, 2026, Adeyeye outlined how historical oversights in pharmacy oversight allowed illicit networks to enter the national pharmaceutical supply chain.
The temporary removal of oversight powers from the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria created regulatory vacuums that enabled unqualified dealers to distribute falsified therapeutics.
Key Operational Measures and Enforcement Outcomes
Falsified antimalarials, antibiotics, and antiretrovirals have directly contributed to treatment failures and rising antimicrobial resistance across urban and rural markets.
Enforcement Metric
Volume / Action Taken
Primary Objective
Seized Products
7,210 substandard/falsified items
Immediate removal from pharmaceutical channels
Legal Convictions
64 criminal convictions secured
Prosecution of unauthorized medicine dealers
Standardization
WHO Common Technical Document (CTD)
Aligning drug registration with global protocols
Community Reach
Pharmacy reserve volunteer forces
Extending regulatory monitoring into remote markets
Modernizing Infrastructure to Resolve the Counterfeit Medicine Crisis
To permanently mitigate the counterfeit medicine crisis, NAFDAC is adopting international regulatory standards and deploying volunteer pharmacy reserve forces into informal channels. Supported by global health partners including the WHO and the U.S. Pharmacopeia, the agency continues strengthening quality control frameworks across distribution networks.
Why It Matters: Resolving the counterfeit medicine crisis requires strict regulatory enforcement and supply chain traceability to prevent treatment failure and combat antimicrobial resistance.
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