How to Tell If Your Medicine Is Fake in Nigeria: A Pharmacist's 5-Minute Check
Fake medicines are having a frightening moment in Nigeria. In September 2025, NAFDAC announced the seizure of 277 cartons of fake, unregistered antimalarials — over ₦1.2 billion worth, close to half a million doses — concealed in a Lagos warehouse and falsely declared as spare parts, and warned it pointed to a wider counterfeit threat. The scale behind the headlines is real: a 2024 review of studies across Africa found that about 22.6% — roughly 1 in 5 — of the medicines sampled were substandard or falsified, and the World Health Organization reported that cases of fake and substandard medicines roughly doubled between 2019 and 2023. ...