NAFDAC to reduce influx of sub-standard drugs by 2025

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Monday said it would reduce substandard and falsified drugs to five per cent prevalence by the year 2025 in Nigeria.

Disclosing this in at a press conference held recently in Abuja, the Director-General, of the Agency Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said that one of the strategic plans of NAFDAC was to reduce substandard and falsified medicines to not more than five per cent prevalence in Nigeria by the year 2025.

DG of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye

She also added that the last data had on the prevalence of substandard and falsified medicines in Nigeria is 16.7 per cent.

However, she noted that the 16.7 per cent prevalence was 14 years ago, noting that it is time for the agency to carry out another survey to determine the present percentage of prevalence of substandard and falsified medicines in the country.

The NAFDAC boss explained that the Agency has been proactive and vigilant towards curbing substandard and falsified drugs in the country, stressing that the move became essential to protect the health of the populace.

She said that the agency would make it mandatory to identify and test the active pharmaceutical ingredient in all imported and locally manufactured drugs in the country from January 2020.

This, according to her, is to ensure compliance with international standards.

The director-general noted that besides safeguarding the health of the people, the regulatory control would also build confidence in Nigerians about the medicines available in the country.

Adeyeye, who said that substandard drugs could come through importation, explained that NAFDAC started enforcing regulations and control of active pharmaceutical ingredients of all drugs imported or manufactured locally in 2019.

She added that the agency had been requesting for the drug master file that had the history of processing and safety of the drugs.

She said that in 2018, the agency started a country-wide inspection of 165 companies, using the international standard to ascertain Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliance.

Adeyeye added that part of the GMP was the use of appropriate manufacturing equipment and facilities by manufacturers to ensure adequate control.

She said that measures were also put in place for the production of quality products.