Community pharmacists hail NAFDAC at 25

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC) has been commended for its efforts towards curtailing the spread of counterfeit drugs in the country.

The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria made this known in a congratulatory statement to the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, to mark the agency’s 25th anniversary.

In the statement jointly signed by its National Chairman, Samuel Adekola; and National Secretary, Abosede Idowu, ACPN said that NAFDAC was arguably one of the most impactful regulatory agencies in the country.

“While it is not time to rest on our laurels, we have had some marginal improvement from the days of the predecessors of Prof. Adeyeye which she is apparently consolidating at a fast pace.

“Today, it is apt to laud the modest efforts of NAFDAC under the leadership of Prof. Moji Adeyeye, with regards to national development by documenting for posterity some obvious areas.”

It commended the DG and her team for managing the internally generated revenue of NAFDAC “such that some inherited debts are gradually being defrayed.”

According to ACPN, the seeming undue political exposure of NAFDAC appeared to be drifting to core professionalism “which is the ideal in ultimate public interest” and creating sustainable relationship management with key stakeholders.

The statement added, “While we have made some gentle strides with Prof. Adeyeye in the last 18 months or thereabout, we recognise some challenges that still need to be dealt with, including, non-adherence to designated ports of entries for drugs (both airports and seaports) which still encourage the distribution of falsified medicines in Nigeria.

“NAFDAC enforcement agents need to checkmate the influence of the night buses and other illegal modes of freight forwarding deployed to move falsified medicines in our country. It is our expectation that the new NAFDAC management will reduce lead time employed in the registration of drugs and other products which appears unduly long as far as the businesses of manufacturers and importers are concerned.”