The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has launched a database for registered and certified drugs for sale and distribution in Nigeria.
In a bid to eradicate sale and consumption of unwholesome pharmaceutical products, the agency said its enforcement directorate destroyed 135 truckloads of fake, counterfeit and spurious seized products and damaged/expired products willingly submitted by stakeholders at an estimated street value of about N16 billion.
NAFDAC’s Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who presented the database tagged ‘NAFDAC Green Book,’ at a media parley on Monday, said the list contained 6,432 registered pharmaceutical products.
The DG noted that the database would be made accessible to members of the public latest January next year.
She said members of the public could log into the website using their android mobile phone to verify any drug of their choice.
Adeyeye, who spoke on efforts that led to the recent prequalification of the Central Drug Control Laboratory (CDCL) in Yaba, Lagos State, by the World Health Organisation, Adeyeye said the agency constructed the laboratory from the scratch gulping a total of N4.5 billion.
The DG also used the opportunity to give updates on the activities of the agency especially in the area of efforts to check sale of adulterated pharmaceutical products in the country.
She said that NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate had been busy with joint inspection/seizures and destruction exercises of banned or unregistered products.
According to her, “The Directorate destroyed 135 truckloads of fake, counterfeit and spurious seized products and damaged/expired products willingly submitted by stakeholders at an estimated street value of about N16 billion.”
She also said the agency carried out several raids in the south-east and south-south across nine states, revealing that counterfeit Diageo products worth over N38 million, were recovered.
In Lagos State and Abuja, she said several places were also raided and counterfeited products worth over N200 million recovered and seized.
Adeyeye, attributed the rising menace of fake drugs to a bad economy which she said was fueling production and sale of substandard products in the country.
Speaking on milestones attained by Nigeria in recent times, Adeyeye said the country has achieved 35 percent local manufacturing capacity for essential drugs.
She said with the prequalification of the Yaba laboratory and intense effort by NAFDAC to further attain the WHO Maturity level 4 before the end of next year, the country would witness a big boost in local manufacturing capacity for pharmaceutical products.
On the challenges facing NAFDAC, Adeyeye said the agency was currently having challenges with the digitalization of its process, adding that the management resolved to seek assistance from developed countries to overcome them.
She said NAFDAC was planning to phase out production and sale of alcohol in sachet by the end of January 2024.
She said the agency needed to increase its staff strength from the current 2,000 to 12,000, adding that NAFDAC was also doing a lot in the area of training of its core professionals in order to maintain standards.
The DG further said NAFDAC was implementing a gradual phasing out of some harmful insecticides and pesticides.
Onyebuchi Ezigbo
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