Abuja, Feb. 24, 2020 (NAN) The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it is intensifying its surveillance on drugs coming into the country following the outbreak of Coronavirus in China.
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director General of the agency disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Abuja.
Acccording to Adeyeye, India is already feeling the heat of the disease because it gets most of its raw materials from China; and Nigeria also buys most of its drugs from the same China.
“If India has started feeling the heat, we should be going to Churches and Mosques to pray because we do not manufacture anything here except water.
“We import almost everything, the active ingredients and non-active ingredients, and even equipment; it is a scary thing and I have been emphasising this from day one.
“Drug security is needed in this country, we are in trouble if something happens; part of our best global practice is to ensure we have quality laboratories with well trained staff.
“We have revamped our approach to post marketing surveillance, meaning if your drug product is approved and it is now in Wuse and Kano, the quality must be the same,” she said.
She added that the agency had been able to inspect not less than 165 companies within six months between 2018 and 2019, saying that inspection of product was not limited to only imported goods.
The D-G said the agency had a mandate to ensure that imported and manufactured products were of standard quality, noting that so far NAFDAC’s efforts had yielded good results.
She said that companies were now following International standards and using best practices in the production of their goods.
According to Adeyeye, the agency is now working directly with foreign laboratories to ascertain the quality of goods being shipped into Nigeria instead of going through agents. (NAN)
