To reduce the prevalence of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) will open eight additional laboratories.
Minister of health Osagie Emmanuel Ehanire stated this while declaring open the 3rd African Medicine Quality Forum (AMQF) meeting at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, on Tuesday.
He said NAFDAC currently operates seven laboratories to ensure only safe and efficacious drugs are available in Nigeria.
He said the AMQF will assist member states to fight substandard and proliferation of fake drugs and secure the well being of all Africans.
He urged participants at the meeting to use the platform for advocacy and provide government with reliable data to completely eradicate substandard drugs in the continent.
Director-general of NAFDAC Prof Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye said, “NAFDAC advocates daily for quality of medicines in the nation’s supply chain through strengthening of our internal capacities such as having quality laboratories with modern equipment with trained personnel, strong post marketing surveillance, inspection of manufacturing facilities and enforcement using international best practices.
AMQF “is a platform for a holistic continental quality control agenda that facilitates sharing of best practices, an advocacy platform to raise the national and international visibility of National Quality Control Laboratories (NQCL),” she said.
Director-general West African Health Organisation (WAHO) Stanley Okolo said, apart from ensuring quality control in Africa, AMQF is ensuring that indigenous and traditional medicines manufacturers are promoted and assisted to source external funds.
Chairman House Committee on Health Care Services Dr Sununu Yusuf said the scourge of substandard and falsified medicines is hampering safe health care delivery in Nigeria and many countries globally.
“As legislators we shall commit to enacting laws and regulations that ensure only safe and efficacious medicines are available to our people.”
He urge the participants to develop proposal to ensure that national quality control laboratories have the required legal mandate and well defined scope of activities.
AMQF was established in 2017 as a Technical Working Group of African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) that is jointly domiciled at AUDA-NEPAD and WHO, Geneva as joint secretariats.
The meeting sponsored by World Bank, NAFDAC, West African Health Organization (WAHO), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), AU-NEPAD, United States Pharmacopeia (USP), World Health Organization (WHO) and manufacturers commenced in Abuja on Tuesday February 25 to end February 28, 2020 at Transcorp Hilton.
The theme for this year’s meeting is “2020: Perfect Vision for Quality of Medicines in Africa.”