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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said on Sunday, that its vaccine laboratory is 70 per cent and will be ready in six months time.
The Agency was optimistic that it will attain the enviable status of Maturity Level 4 (ML4) as soon as possible and will be certified by the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin production of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals products.
Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, at a meeting with major players in the nation’s pharmaceutical industry under the aegis of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group- Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), solicited support and collaborations to the desire of NAFDAC to attain WHO Maturity Level 4 as quickly as possible.
She said that NAFDAC is the only agency in sub-Sahara Africa that has its own in-house biologics and vaccine laboratory. ‘’We have a lot going for us as a country. We just have to get our acts together and start producing vaccines and other pharmaceuticals products, and I know it’s a lot of work’’.
Prof Adeyeye, in a statement signed by the Resident Media Consultant of NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola, said the Agency just met all the requirement of WHO’s Maturity Level 3 (ML3), stressing that while doing that, the Agency got some requirements also satisfied under ML4, but not all. “It means our journey is not going to be as difficult as it was for the last four plus years’’.
She emphasized the importance of WHO ML4 which, according to her, would further boost the trade aspect of the Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry without diminishing its health implications for the Nigerian populace. “Nigerians would be more confident of the medicines that they take since the process embarked upon by the Agency is aimed at mitigating against substandard and falsified medicines to a very low prevalence,” she said.
She disclosed that it took Ghana 13 years to get ML3, while it took Nigeria four years to attain the prestigious status, adding that achieving ML4 will really help the country’s manufacturing industry to grow. “It will also help importers that are migrating from importation of pharmaceutical products to local manufacturing, in terms of trade’’.
She reiterated that NAFDAC will continue to do quality assessment that will lead to trade in the global arena whether in West Africa or globally. ‘’That is what our journey towards ML4 is going to lead to’’.
She further explained that the regulatory body will use the ML3 and categorization of companies into low, medium and high risk based on compliance of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) to negotiate, discuss, with procurement agencies and government international partners like UNICEF so that more local manufacturing companies would be encouraged, and more liberation would be encouraged.
“If there is opportunity to trade or sell, it means more companies will be doing liberation or doing partnership. What we want to ensure is that no substandard medicine is exported from Nigeria so that we can foster trade, we can increase our GDP, increase our forex, reduce unemployment, make ourselves proud. Since this is on a global platform, we have to use international standard’’.
The pharmaceutical manufacturers, led by the Chairman of PMG-MAN, Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, commended the Agency on attainment of WHO Maturity Level 3, stressing that the group would do everything humanly possible to support NAFDAC to continue to excel in creating an enabling environment for the industry to thrive.
Dr Ayebae who is also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidson Healthcare Plc, vowed to galvanize other Chief Executive Officers of pharmaceutical companies in the country to ensure that they have a collaborative relationship with NAFDAC to make its oversight responsibility over the industry most effective and help the industry to grow.
He added that his body would form a technical committee with NAFDAC that would work with the Agency to ensure that the industry attains greater heights.
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