Peter Okoye, PBA Journalism Mentee
Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, has stated that the agency’s vaccine laboratory will be ready in the next six months to ensure sufficient supply, as well as to strengthen the country against any eventualities, including disease outbreaks.
Adeyeye disclosed this in a stakeholder meeting on pharmaceutical traceability, organised by NAFDAC in Lagos recently where she stated that the vaccine laboratory is about 70 per cent completed.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelNAFDAC DG recalled the challenges the nation’s healthcare system went through during COVID-19 and how it narrowly escaped the onslaught of the viral infection, therefore making it a priority to produce local vaccines and medicines in the country.
She further revealed that the agency has made some significant moves towards the attainment of vaccine production landmarks through transformation, from laboratory to registration, to job evaluation and research. She added that the staff of the agency had gone on two rounds of training in South Korea, with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
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She however noted that manufacturers must know their chain of production to enable them to detect middlemen who might want to creep into the supply chain secretly.
‘‘You must know your distributors, the wholesalers, retailers. It is when you know your chain that you can guarantee quality. It will be easier to follow through and it will be easier to identify anybody that is trying to infiltrate that chain or infiltrate your trade”, she said.
Speaking at the meeting, the Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) Dr Fidelis Ayebae, assured NAFDAC of the group’s support in the agency’s efforts to attain the WHO Maturity Level 4 status and launch Nigeria into the league of vaccines and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) producers in the world.
Ayebae, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, of Fidson Healthcare Plc, pledged to mobilise other chief executive officers of pharmaceutical companies in the country to collaborate with NAFADC in making its oversight responsibility over the industry more effective and helpful for the growth of the industry.
He also added that PMG-MAN would form a technical committee with NAFDAC and work with the agency to ensure that the industry attains greater heights.
‘’Let me assure you that if there is one body in foods and drugs and other related chemicals which are under your purview that wants you to succeed more than anything else, it is PMG-MAN,” he added.
