Medicines are used to cure and treat ailments, relieve or eliminate disease symptoms, and slow down the disease process. Any attempt to disrupt this natural medicines process, using falsified medications, spells doom to a consumer of such medication. The challenge of fake medicines is a global one and affects the developing and developed nations and currently assumes great significance as a result of globalization challenges, which has flattened the entire world, hence removing barriers to the movement of products and services. This cross-sectional survey was conducted, using six local government areas of Anambra State, South-East Nigeria. This research has shown that falsified medicine is an evil wind that blows nobody any good. It negatively affects every aspect of the citizen’s livelihood, ranging from their health, which manifests as treatment failures, deformities, loss of life to death, to loss of confidence on the healthcare providers, revenue losses to individuals, healthcare providers, manufacturers, and finally corruption of the genuine medicines supply chain with fake and adulterated medicines. The study has clearly shown the experiences of residents of Anambra State, South-East Nigeria with fake and adulterated medicines and also serves as a wake-up call to medicines regulators like NAFDAC, PCN, the PSN, and Federal Ministry of Health, to declare a state of emergency on the fight against fake and adulterated medicines, and make enabling laws that are punitive enough towards the fight against this scourge, so that the healthcare and well-being of Nigerians would be assured at all times.

Dr Chijioke Maxwell Ofomata is a Public Health Pharmacist with expertise in Fake and Adulterated Medicines, New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), Vaccination in Community Pharmacy premises, Healthcare Management and Implementation Sciences Research in rural populations. He holds a PhD in International Business Management, Masters in Public Health (MPH), Masters in Business Administration, Advanced Management Program, and DNA Analysis (Forensic Science). Dr Chijioke Ofomata has decades of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Industry experience in the Nigeria and West African markets and currently teaches Clinical Pharmacy, Forensic Pharmacy, Entrepreneurship and Pharmacy Management in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.