The Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mojisola Adeyeye has expressed concerns over the prevalence of falsified and substandard drugs in Nigeria which she described as alarming.
Adeyeye harped on the need for concerned authorities to immediately map out strategies that will reduce drastically the circulation of falsified and substandard drugs in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. She noted that the current prevalence of substandard and falsified in Nigeria is drugs is 17 percent, adding that another survey on the menace will be conducted.
Adeyeye speaking at the African Medcines Quality Forum (AMQF) 3rd annual meeting in Abuja on Tuesday informed that the essence of the meeting which had representatives from over 43 African countries, is to ultimately ensure that only safe drugs are in circulation in Nigeria and across Africa.
In the same vein, the Director General, West African Health Organization (WAHO), Stanley Okolo expressed concern that the issue of substandard and falsified medcine circulating in African markets has resulted in thousands of preventable deaths annually, especially as the continent battles high incidence of Communicable and non-communicable disease.
The DG opined that the establishment of a robust regulatory oversight and stringent Laboratory testing facilities for the quality of medcines will tackle the menace.
Okolo informed that WAHO, will in 2020 conduct a post market surveillance exercise in the West African Region which will focus on cross birder surveillance of medcines of public health importance.
On the Covid-19 (Coronavirus), the DG said the outbreak is a potential threat to drug security in Africa. He therefore adviced countries to; reduce tendencies of drug importation by encouraging local manufacturing, strengthen, refine and promote traditional medcine.
The minister of health, Osagie Ehanire in his key note address decried that substandard and falsified drugs places a huge burden on health care system which includes; prolonged treatment, drug resistance loss of financial resources, disability and loss of faith in the health care system.
The minister described the AMQF as a laudable innitiative tasking it to map out a continental strategy towards reduction and complete eradication of substandard and falsified medcine in Africa.
“I call on AMQF to strengthen collaboration among African medcine Regulatory authorities and assist member countries in developing capacity and structure to fight the proliferation of substandard and falsified medcines.
“I also enjoy AMQF to develop a framework to conduct regular medcine quality survey across regional and national boundaries and to provide government with reliable data on distribution of substandard and falsified medcines and also for planning safe health care delivery to our citizens,” he said.
He noted that NAFDAC which has the mandate is to establish testing laboratories for medcines currently operates seven laboratories in Nigeria, and the 8th laboratory will be commissioned sometime this year, “as work towards obtaining WHO pre-qualification for all our laboratories.”
The Chairman, Senate Committe on health, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, said medicine of poor quality can be likened to a weapon of mass destruction as a poor quality batch of a medicine of thousands of tablets can he dispensed to hundreds of patients in many countries across the whole world.
The chairman therefore informed that the National Assembly has appropriated necessary funds for NAFDAC to acquire state of the art Laboratory equipment to strengthen it’s regulatory functions.
The AMQF is being hosted by NAFDAC in collaboration with AUDA-NEPAD, ISO, WHO and supported by World Bank. It has the theme, “2020: Perfect Vision for Quality Medcines in Africa.”
Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja
