NAFDAC to enhance capability of Agulu, Kaduna laboratories

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said on Monday that it would enhance the capability of the Agulu and Kaduna NAFDAC laboratories for the quality of medicinal products.

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of NAFDAC, said this in Abuja on Monday at a news conference.

Adeyeye said that the laboratories would be used for risk-based approach for ascertaining the quality of medicinal products.

According to her, the mandate of the agency is to safe guard public health by ensuring that food and drug products made available to the public are safe and effective.

“We are proud to announce the significant strides we have made in enhancing the safety and quality of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.

“This has been through the implementation of pharmaceutical traceability, pharmacovigilance, post marketing on the field, checking for substandard falsified medicines, and other system strengthening interventions,” she said.

Adeyeye said that the endeavour had been made possible through vital support from the Global Fund’s Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (GF-RSSH) grant, with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) as the principal recipient.

According to her, the Global Fund is an international financing institution dedicated to combating HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

She said that the fund provided support to countries in their efforts to address global health challenges and strengthen health systems.

“NACA is Nigeria’s main organisation for the control of HIV and AIDS and it is responsible for coordinating the country’s response to HIV and AIDS and provides strategic guidance for the national response.

“Part of their activities is strengthening NAFDAC’s role and capacity in pharmacovigilance and ADR monitoring and reporting,” she said.

Adeyeye said that several budget lines were being implemented by NAFDAC during Grant Cycle 6, under the GF-RSSH grant.

The NAFDAC boss said that the agency had successfully built the capacity of 76 staff members across the nation on Pharmacovigilance of AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) commodities.

She said that in addition, GF (BL 106) supported NAFDAC to acquire a mobile app for ADR reporting and monitoring Pharmacovigilance activity.

Adeyeye said that the implementation of a mobile app had streamlined the reporting and monitoring of adverse drug reactions ADR and improved the overall responsiveness of the healthcare system.

“To ensure that the medicinal product is the right medicine which the label carries, Global Fund (BL36) supported three NAFDAC state offices with three field devices (Truscan®) for rapid on the spot check for product quality.

“NAFDAC’s state offices have been further equipped with some devices for rapid screening of product quality, ensuring that unsafe and substandard products are swiftly identified and removed from circulation.

“In addition to this, we funded the Yaba Central Drug Control Laboratory (CDCL) to conduct comprehensive analysis of ATM and other disease programme medicines,” she said.