NAFDAC shuts down six non-compliant local pharmaceutical manufacturers
Doosuur Iwambe,Abuja
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has shut down six local manufacturers of finished pharmaceutical products FPPs.
According to a statement signed by Sayo Akintola, NAFDAC Resident Media Consultant, the move was in furtherance of its zero tolerance for circulation of Substandard and Falsified medicines in Nigeria.
The Director General of NAFADC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye explained in the statement that the pharmaceutical companies were shut down following a nationwide surveillance on their manufacturing activities.
She noted with dismay that the local manufacturers, in spite of appropriate notification, failed to meet minimum Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards in line with extant requirements which are required to assure the quality, safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products.
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The NAFDAC DG however, maintained that the companies will remain shut until the respective GMP compliances are met.
She stated that these current actions are to serve as deterrents to all local and foreign manufacturers who may not want to comply with basic GMP requirements and join the Agency in its renewed campaign to rid the country of SF medicines.
The statement read;”NAFDAC in its current effort and relentless drive to address the challenges of Substandard and Falsified (SF) medicines in Nigeria recently blacklisted a foreign manufacturer of finished pharmaceutical products (FPPs) and delisted its local representative for gross violation of NAFDAC extant laws and regulations. ‘’NAFDAC owes the nation the onerous responsibility of safeguarding public health and will not back track in ensuring that only medicines that are safe, efficacious and of good quality are accessible to the Nigerians’’.
