The Senate has passed for second reading a bill seeking to impose stricter penalties, including up to 15 years’ imprisonment, for the production, importation, distribution and sale of counterfeit medical products, fake drugs and unwholesome processed foods.
Gatekeepers News reports that the proposed legislation aims to strengthen Nigeria’s legal framework against the growing threat of counterfeit medicines.
Sponsored by Senator Umar Sadiq, the bill seeks to repeal the existing Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods Act of 2004 and replace it with a more comprehensive law.
It criminalises the manufacture, transportation, possession and sale of fake drugs, while also banning the production or possession of labels, packaging materials and equipment intended for counterfeit products.
The bill further outlaws the sale of drugs in unauthorised locations such as markets, motor parks, roadside stalls, buses, ferries and unlicensed online platforms.
The proposed legislation also empowers the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to deploy modern product-tracking technologies, establish enforcement task forces, inspect facilities, seize counterfeit products, arrest suspects and strengthen surveillance at the nation’s borders. It also provides for compensation for victims, sanctions against corporate organisations and grants the Federal High Court exclusive jurisdiction over offences under the proposed law.
Although lawmakers unanimously supported the bill, some senators raised concerns about possible overlaps with the existing NAFDAC Act and urged that the issue be addressed during the public hearing.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio subsequently referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) for further legislative work, directing it to submit its report within four weeks.
