By Doris Obinna
THE National Agency for Food and Drugs
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has
pledged to cut imports of pharmaceutical
products by 70 per cent assuring that local
manufacturing of pharmaceutical ingredients
will aid the production of quality medicine.
Speaking at a workshop titled, “Sustain- able healthcare development: Workshop on
local manufacturing of active pharmaceuti- cal ingredients and excipients,” in Lagos, the
Director-General, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola
Adeyeye, disclosed that over dependence on
importation of drug or food is a sign of inse- curity to any country.
“The drive for NAFDAC since my first
tenure is to ensure that the 70 per cent of prod- ucts that we import will change the paradigm
and narratives to about 30 per cent of import
so that we can manufacture about 70 per cent
locally.
“COVID-19 pandemic taught us a bitter
lesson because there was hoarding of phar- maceutical products. I don’t blame the phar- maceutical companies because why are we
not having our own high level of local manu- facturing,” she queried?
“So that reminded us again that it is impor- tant for us to manufacture at least a lot of what
we need locally.”
While stressing that the quality of APIs
directly impacts quality of the final product,
she said, “Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) is as good as the product from which they
are made. If the API is bad from the beginning
or poor, the drug product will be poor.
“Substandard APIs could not only compro- mise the effectiveness of medicines, but also
pose serious risks to public health, potentially
damaging vital organs such as the kidney, liver
and heart.”
Also, Coordinating Minister of Health and
Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, who
was represented by deputy director in the Feder- al Ministry of Health, Mrs. Omolara Oderinde,
said, the country has to align according to na- tional drug policy as 70 per cent of pharmaceu- ticals are imported.
The Chairman, House Committee on Food
and Drug Administration, Mrs. Regina Akume,
represented by Hon Emeka Obiajulu, said,
NAFDAC is a creation of an Act of the Parlia- ment established by the decree laws of the fed- eration.
According to him, NAFDAC as a regulatory
agency in Nigeria is responsible for ensuring the
safety, quality and efficiency of food, drugs, cos- metics, medical devices and chemicals.
“The legislature and, especially, Nigeria’s
National Assembly comprises the senate and
the house of representatives and its primary
responsibility includes law making, amending
and repealing as well as ensuring that resources
are efficiently allocated and utilised as one of
the three primary branches of government in a
democratic system.”