A BBC investigation has revealed that an Indian pharmaceutical company is manufacturing unlicensed and highly addictive opioid drugs, illegally exporting them to West Africa, thereby triggering a major public health crisis in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire.
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02-22, 2025Aveo Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, produces a range of drugs that are sold under different brand names and packaged to look like legitimate medicines. However, all of these drugs contain the same harmful ingredients: the potent opioid tapentadol and the muscle relaxant carisoprodol. Carisoprodol is highly addictive and has been banned in Europe due to its adverse effects.
This drug combination is not licensed for use anywhere in the world and can cause breathing difficulties and seizures; an overdose can be fatal. Despite the risks, these opioids are very popular as street drugs in many West African countries due to their low price and widespread availability, exacerbating the health crisis.
BBC World Service found drug packaging bearing the Aveo company logo being sold on the streets of towns and cities in Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire. The BBC traced the drugs back to Aveo's factory in India and sent an undercover reporter into the factory, posing as an African businessman looking to supply opioids to Nigeria.
Using hidden cameras, the BBC filmed Vinod Sharma, a supervisor at Aveo, showcasing the same dangerous products that the BBC had found across West Africa. In the secretly recorded video, the undercover reporter told Sharma that his plan was to sell the pills to teenagers in Nigeria, "they all like this product." Sharma did not flinch, simply replying "okay," and then explained that if users took two or three pills at a time, they could "relax" and agreed they could "get high."
At the end of the meeting, Sharma said: "This is very harmful to health," adding "now, this is business." But this "business" is harming the health of millions of young people in West Africa and destroying their potential, creating a devastating societal impact.
In the northern Ghanaian city of Tamale, so many young people are taking the illegal opioids that Alhassan Maham, a chief in the city, has formed a volunteer task force of about 100 local citizens, tasked with raiding drug dealers and taking the pills off the streets. Maham said: "These drugs consume the abusers' sanity, like fuel on fire." An addict in Tamale put it more simply, saying the drugs "waste our lives."
The BBC team followed the task force on motorcycles as they launched a raid on one of Tamale's poorest communities, based on tip-offs about drug dealing. En route, they passed an unconscious young man, who locals said had taken the drugs. When the drug dealer was caught, he was carrying a plastic bag full of green pills labeled Tafrodol. These packages bore the distinctive logo of Aveo Pharmaceuticals.
It is not just in Tamale that Aveo's pills are causing suffering. The BBC found that police in other parts of Ghana have also seized similar products manufactured by Aveo. We also found evidence that Aveo's pills are also being sold on the streets of Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, with teenagers dissolving them in alcoholic energy drinks to enhance the high.
Publicly available export data shows that Aveo Pharmaceuticals and its sister company, Westfin International, are shipping millions of these pills to Ghana and other West African countries. Nigeria, with a population of 225 million, is the largest market for these pills. The Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics estimates that about 4 million Nigerians abuse some form of opioid.
Brig Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa, chairman of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), told the BBC that opioids "are destroying our youth, our families, it is present in every community in Nigeria." The widespread abuse of these drugs has become a significant concern for law enforcement.
In 2018, after a BBC Africa Eye investigation into opioids being sold as street drugs, Nigerian authorities attempted to control tramadol, a widely abused opioid painkiller. The government banned the sale of tramadol without a prescription, imposed strict limits on maximum dosages, and cracked down on the import of illegal pills. At the same time, Indian authorities tightened regulations on the export of tramadol.
Shortly after this crackdown, Aveo Pharmaceuticals began exporting a new pill based on tapentadol, a stronger opioid, and mixed with the muscle relaxant carisoprodol. West African officials warned that opioid exporters appeared to be using these new mixed pills to replace tramadol and evade the crackdown, exploiting regulatory loopholes.
Inside the Aveo factory, cartons of the mixed drugs were piled high, almost to the ceiling. On his desk, Vinod Sharma displayed packet after packet of the tapentadol-carisoprodol mix, which the company sells under a range of names, including Tafrodol (the most popular), TimaKing, and Super Royal-225.
He told the BBC's undercover team that the "scientists" working at his factory could combine different drugs to "make new products." Aveo's new product is even more dangerous than the tramadol it is replacing. According to Dr Lekhansh Shukla, an assistant professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India, tapentadol "has the effect of an opioid," including very deep sleep.
"It can be so deep that people stop breathing, which leads to drug overdose," he explained. "At the same time, you are also taking another drug, carisoprodol, which also brings very deep sleep and relaxation. This sounds like a very dangerous combination." Carisoprodol has been banned in Europe because it is addictive. It is approved for use in the United States, but only for short-term use of up to three weeks.
Dr. Shukla said that withdrawal symptoms are even "more severe" when mixed with tapentadol compared to regular opioids. He said he was unaware of clinical trials into the efficacy of this combination. Unlike tramadol, which is legally used in limited doses, the tapentadol-carisoprodol mix "doesn't sound like a rational combination," he said. "This is not licensed for use in our country."
In India, pharmaceutical companies cannot legally manufacture and export unlicensed drugs unless those drugs meet the standards of the importing country. Aveo is shipping Tafrodol and similar products to Ghana, where, according to Ghana's Narcotics Control Commission, this combination of tapentadol and carisoprodol is unlicensed and illegal. By shipping Tafrodol to Ghana, Aveo is violating Indian law.
We put these allegations to Vinod Sharma and Aveo Pharmaceuticals. They did not respond. The Indian drug regulator, CDSCO, told us that the Indian government recognizes its responsibility to global public health and is committed to ensuring that India has a responsible and robust drug regulatory system.
It added that exports from India to other countries are closely monitored and that recently tightened regulations are strictly enforced. It also called on importing countries to support India's efforts by ensuring they have equally robust regulatory systems. The CDSCO said it had discussed the matter with other countries, including West African nations, and was committed to working with them to prevent wrongdoing. The regulator said it would take immediate action against any pharmaceutical company involved in improper conduct.
Aveo is not the only Indian company manufacturing and exporting unlicensed opioids. Publicly available export data shows that other pharmaceutical companies are also producing similar products, and drugs with different brand names are widely sold across West Africa. These manufacturers are damaging the reputation of India's rapidly growing pharmaceutical industry, which produces high-quality generic drugs relied upon by millions worldwide and vaccines that have saved millions of lives. The industry's exports are worth at least $28 billion (£22 billion) annually.
Speaking about his meeting with Sharma, the BBC's undercover reporter (whose identity must be kept secret to ensure his safety) said: "Nigerian journalists have been reporting this opioid crisis for over 20 years, but finally, I came face to face... with one of the roots of the African opioid crisis, with one of the people actually manufacturing this product and shipping it in containers to our country. He knows the harm it causes, but he doesn't seem to care... just describing it as business."
Back in Tamale, Ghana, the BBC team followed the local task force on one final raid, which resulted in the discovery of more of Aveo's Tafrodol. That evening, they gathered in a local park and burned the drugs they had seized. "We are burning it publicly for everyone to see," said one of the leaders, Zickay, as the packages were doused in gasoline and set alight, "so that it can send a signal to the sellers and suppliers: if they catch you, they will burn your drugs."
But even as the flames destroyed hundreds of packets of Tafrodol, the "sellers and suppliers" at the top of this chain, thousands of miles away in India, were still mass-producing millions more, profiting handsomely from the misery.
