Dora Nkem Akunyili // ⓘ OFR (14 July 1954 – 7 June 2014) was the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria from 2001 to 2008.

[10] In 2001, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed her the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

[11] Akunyili had a special motivation for attacking the country's counterfeit drug problem [12] and this is because, in 1988, she had watched her sister aged 21, die after being given injections of fake insulin as part of regular diabetes treatment.

[13][5] She put together a team of mostly female pharmacists and inspectors and started a war against counterfeit drugs that saw many open-air medicine markets across the country closed down.

[6] She resigned her appointment as Minister of Information and Communications on 16 December 2010, after two years of service to run for office as senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly.

[25] She was a pharmacist and governmental administrator who gained international recognition[26] and won several awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights.

[31] Her funeral took place on 27 and 28 August, attended by many dignitaries from within Nigeria and beyond, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, and a former Nigerian military ruler General Yakubu Gowon.

[33][34] On 28 September 2021, her husband Chike Akunyili was killed by gunmen at Nkpor, in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra on his way back from an event to honor his late wife at Sharon Hall, All Saints Cathedral, Onitsha, and organized by the University of Nigeria Nsukka Alumni Association (UNAA).