How to identify fake drugs: the box, the tablets, the price and the seller

Start with where the medicine came from

The World Health Organization (WHO) advises getting medicines from licensed outlets: pharmacies, clinics, doctors, hospitals and health centres. Where you get a medicine tells you more than anything printed on the box.

Regulators across Africa give the same advice. In August 2025, Uganda's National Drug Authority told the public to get medicines only from licensed pharmacies and drug shops. In its 2025 alert on counterfeit Postinor-2, NAFDAC told patients to get the pills only from verified pharmacies or licensed healthcare providers. In November 2024, South Africa's regulator, SAHPRA, warned that counterfeit Ozempic was being sold through websites, social media and other informal channels.

In 2025, NAFDAC raided the open drug markets at Idumota, Aba and Onitsha in Nigeria, seized falsified, substandard and expired medicines, and found no proof that the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria had registered those market premises. In Nigeria, read how to know if a pharmacy is licensed.

Look closely at the box

WHO lists these signs on the packaging:

• Poor condition: torn, faded, stained or badly printed boxes and labels.
• Spelling mistakes and bad grammar on the box, the label or the leaflet.
• Missing or unclear manufacturing and expiry dates.
• A batch number or expiry date on the blister strip or bottle that does not match the one on the outer box.

Small mistakes can mark a fake. In its August 2025 alert on counterfeit Postinor-2, NAFDAC said the fake boxes read "Veify" instead of "Verify" on the PIN sticker, used smaller print, and read "Distnibuted in Nigeria" on the back. In April 2026, Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority warned about fake HIV test kits that named the wrong manufacturer and carried different manufacturing and expiry dates from the original kits.

That same Postinor-2 alert shows the limit of a registration number. The counterfeit boxes carried the same NAFDAC registration number, 04-6985, as the original. A registration number tells you a product was approved, not that the box in your hand is real. Search the number on your regulator's list and compare the name, strength and maker:

• Nigeria: NAFDAC's Greenbook. See how to verify a NAFDAC number and the signs of a fake NAFDAC number.
• Ghana: the registration number printed on the label, which you can confirm on fdaghana.gov.gh. See Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority.
• Kenya: the Pharmacy and Poisons Board's list of registered products. See the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
• South Africa: SAHPRA's Registered Health Products database. See what SAHPRA does.
• Tanzania: the registered medicines listed under Registered Products on tmda.go.tz. See TMDA.

Our guide on how to read a batch number and expiry date shows the signs of a changed date.

Look at the tablets, capsules or liquid

WHO advises making sure the medicine looks correct. Watch for:

• Tablets or capsules in a different colour, shape or size from the ones you usually get.
• Discoloured or degraded tablets, such as cracked or crumbling ones.
• An unusual smell.
• Tablets that do not match the name on the box. In April 2025, Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board found a strip of levofloxacin tablets inside a box of S-Prazo esomeprazole capsules.

Your eyes can only take you so far. In April 2025, WHO warned about falsified HEALMOXY amoxicillin capsules in Cameroon and the Central African Republic. Laboratory tests found no amoxicillin in them. Only a test could show that. WHO also noted that at least two of the falsified products had their manufacturing and expiry dates written in inconsistent formats.

Be wary of the price and the offer

WHO gives these warning signs, most of them for medicines sold online or through messages:

• A price far below what pharmacies usually charge, or "2 for 1" offers.
• Prescription-only medicines offered without a prescription.
• Websites with no physical address or landline phone number.
• Adverts for medicines that arrive by spam email or unsolicited messages.

If you order medicine online

When a medicine arrives by delivery, WHO advises making sure that:

• You received exactly the medicine you ordered, at the strength you ordered.
• The box is clean and in good condition, with a patient leaflet in the language advertised.
• The medicine looks, feels and smells as it should, and any security seals are unbroken.
• The batch number and expiry date on the inner packaging match the ones on the outer box.
• Any postal label or customs declaration lists the contents as medicines.

If any of these fail, do not use the medicine. Keep it, along with the delivery packaging and the seller's details.

Use the verification on the box

Some medicines carry a scratch panel. In Nigeria, NAFDAC's Mobile Authentication Service started in 2010 and went national for antimalarials and antibiotics in January 2012. You scratch the panel to see a one-time PIN, text the PIN to the provider's toll-free short code, and get a reply saying whether the product is Genuine or a suspected fake.

Some companies protect their products with anti-counterfeiting methods. You can verify a product protected with Batach with your phone at batach.io/scan.

A routine for every medicine

None of these signs takes long. Each time you get a medicine, go through the same steps:

1. Get it from a licensed pharmacy, drug shop, clinic or hospital.
2. Inspect the box for damage, poor printing and spelling mistakes.
3. Compare the batch number and expiry date on the box with the ones on the blister strip or bottle.
4. Look at the tablets, capsules or liquid, and compare them with what you usually get.
5. If the box has a scratch panel or a code, verify it.
6. Search the registration number on your regulator's list.
7. Ask the pharmacist if anything looks different from your last box.

What to do if you suspect a fake

1. Do not use it.
2. Keep the medicine, the box and your receipt.
3. Speak to a pharmacist or doctor. Do not stop a prescribed treatment on your own: ask them for a replacement.
4. If you have already taken it and feel unwell, or it seems not to work, get medical help straight away.
5. Report it to the medicines regulator in your country.

• Nigeria: NAFDAC, on 0800-162-3322, by email to [email protected], or through Med-Safety.
• Ghana: the Food and Drugs Authority, on 0551112224 or 0244310297, or at the nearest FDA office.
• Kenya: the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, at pv.pharmacyboardkenya.org.
• South Africa: SAHPRA, on its 24-hour hotline 0800 204 307. Report side effects at medsafety.sahpra.org.za.
• Tanzania: TMDA, at sqrt.tmda.go.tz or by dialling *152*00#.
• Uganda: the National Drug Authority, on the toll-free line 0800 101 999 or on WhatsApp at 0740 002 070. Website: nda.or.ug.

To understand the different kinds of fake medicine, read what are fake drugs. In Nigeria, read how to report a fake product for every channel.