NAFDAC vows to boost local drug production to reduce costs

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, reiterated the agency’s dedication to enhancing domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued by the NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, Adeyeye on Sunday.

According to the statement, the NAFDAC DG stated this at a webinar lecture anniversary titled, ‘Addressing Costs of Medicines’, noting that enhancing the sector would help to address the high cost of drugs nationwide.

The statement revealed that President Tinubu’s administration understands the significance of local content, which is in tandem with the agency’s goals, to ensure an increase in the nation’s GDP and reduce the unemployment rate.

The statement read, “Locally manufactured medicinal products would be more accessible and affordable compared to the imported drugs, while the rejuvenation of the local pharmaceutical industry will become a panacea for the high cost of medicines in the country.”

The NAFDAC boss attributed the high cost of local production to the devaluation of the naira and high exchange, lamenting that it had made procurement of raw materials and equipment imported for production extremely high.

“To encourage the local pharmaceutical industry to grow, NAFDAC under my leadership started the “5 plus 5” regulatory scheme where a company that has been importing drugs that the local pharmaceutical industry can produce will get a last five-year renewal.

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“During the five-year renewal period, the importer must migrate to local manufacturing or partner with a local manufacturer,” she said.

According to the FG, “our manufacturers import everything except water.

She decried the fact that raw materials, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and the non-active called Excipients are all imported.

‘’But we cannot start manufacturing locally without strengthening the regulations because we have never regulated local manufacturing of APIs.

“NAFDAC would deploy traceability technology to monitor the supply chain, to check substandard falsified medicines,” she said.