By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) has dismissed a report that nearly all Paracetamol tablets in Nigeria are underdosed.
In a statement signed by the agency’s Director-General, Mrs Mojisola Adeyeye, it was revealed that the “report is misleading, and the science is questionable,” noting that it is investigating the matter.
It was disclosed that as soon as the agency became aware of the news, the Director-General had meetings with the respective directors and gave a directive that a survey of the market should be done to sample and test.
The DG also met with the leadership of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) to inform them of the regulator’s intent.
The statement added that NAFDAC’s laboratories are ISO 17025-certified every year to ensure that the procedures used for testing are based on international standards and that the equipment or instruments used are qualified similarly.
“We do yearly post-marketing surveys of medicines to ensure that the quality and safety are maintained. Where there is a deviation from this, i.e., whenever we find any regulated product to be substandard or falsified, NAFDAC regularly issues public alerts or recalls.
“In the last two years we have issued eighty-eight (88) public alerts and ordered thirty-two (32) recalls for medicines and foods,” the statement read.
It assured that NAFDAC uses international standards and scientific methods to survey the paracetamol product where samples are collected from different parts of the country in the right amount and tested using well-calibrated, and qualified state-of-the-art equipment or instruments.
This is part of our routine regulatory post-marketing surveillance among others throughout the life cycle of a medicine.
It further said that, “As soon as we finish the laboratory testing, we will update the public. NAFDAC wishes to reassure the public that the agency is very vigilant in its responsibilities to safeguard the health of the nation.
“It is on this basis that NAFDAC has been recognized by WHO as a stable, well-functioning agency, and by other international partners as an organisation that places a premium on the quality, safety,” and efficacy of medicines, food, and other regulated products.
Aduragbemi Omiyale