Indian Pharma Fuels Africa's 'Zombie Drug' and Opioid Crisis
AFP found millions of dollars in high-strength tapentadol tablets still reaching West Africa, where officials say they are fueling kush use and addiction.
- Despite India's February 2025 crackdown on illicit opioid exports, pharmaceutical firms continue flooding West Africa with millions of dollars of high-strength tapentadol, according to an AFP investigation.
- Indian manufacturers often mislabel the synthetic opioid as "Harmless Medicines for Human Consumption" to bypass export bans, since tapentadol is not classified as a narcotic in India.
- Commercial data links companies like Syncom Formulations and PRG Pharma to shipments worth nearly $15 million, often routed through fraudulent addresses including a camera repair shop in Lagos.
- In West Africa, addicts and laborers use the pills as performance enhancers or appetite suppressants, fueling a "zombie drug" epidemic that researchers say is causing significant death and misery.
- Femi Babafemi of Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency reported seizing two billion high-strength pills in 2023 and 2024, warning that kidnappers and militants use the drug for "courage.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Indian pharma fuels Africa's 'zombie drug' and opioid crisis despite crackdown
They come in blister packs of 10 like any normal painkiller and you can buy them easily in roadside kiosks and street pharmacies across west Africa. Millions of tapentadol tablets from India are helping drive a deadly opioid epidemic ravaging the region, with officials and researchers telling AFP that they are also being added to the “zombie drug” kush. The cheap pills are so strong that no regulatory authority in the world has approved them. Ye…
Harmless medicines? Indian pharma fuels Africa's 'zombie drug' and opioid crisis
NEW DELHI: They come in blister packs of 10 like any normal painkiller, and you can buy them easily in roadside kiosks and street pharmacies across West Africa.Millions of tapentadol tablets from India are helping drive a deadly opioid...
Times of India
The Economic TimesIndian pharma firms flood west Africa with powerful opioids despite crackdown: AFP investigation
Indian pharmaceutical firms are exporting millions of dollars worth of powerful tapentadol opioids to West Africa, fueling a deadly drugs epidemic, according to an AFP investigation. Researchers found these high-strength pills are being added to the addictive "zombie drug" kush, leading to a surge in overdose deaths and addiction across the region.
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