Health workers under the umbrella of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU)/the Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA) have blamed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC’s) for the high cost of drugs and other regulated products in Nigeria.
In a petition they wrote to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu and signed by their national secretary, Ajirotu, the health workers alleged that various policies by NAFDAC had combined to inflict hardship on Nigerians who find it increasingly difficult to access affordable and efficacious drugs.
In the document, which was made available to LEADERSHIP Friday in Abuja yesterday, they blamed the director-general of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, for the frivolous policies which negate the objective and target of the National Drug Policy.
Incidentally, President Tinubu yesterday reappointed Adeyeye for another term in office.
In the petition titled: ‘’The Escalating Cost of Drugs/Other Regulated Products and the Catalytic Activities of the DG, NAFDAC’’, JOHESU/AHPA listed some of the undesirable policies to include a recent policy paper issued by NAFDAC on the quality of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) used in the manufacture of Finished Pharmaceutical Products (FPPs) for the Nigerian market, payment of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) tariffs by importers ,selective and discriminatory sanctions through payment of arbitrary sums of monies for violations in the pharmaceutical value chain and Declaration of 50% fake products in circulation in Nigeria.
They decried a recent order by the DG, NAFDAC, directing all stakeholders intending to submit dossiers for product registration starting from January 2024 that, ‘’only applications supported by APIs or FPPs sourced from the underlisted approved sources will be accepted for review. These are: WHO Prequalified APIs and APIs with Certificates of Suitability to the monograph of the European Pharmacopoeia (CEP). The list also includes APIs and FPPs sourced from facilities certified by PIC/s participating authorities, APIs sourced from facilities certified by Stringent Regulatory Authorities (SRA) or WHO Listed Authorities (WLA) and APIs certified by accredited quality control laboratories.
‘’The memo from NAFDAC and the attendant wish list and expectations is both an open and direct invitation to more fatalities in the Pharmaceutical Sector because of the limitations it imposes on the number of players who can meet the listed conditions. The direct fallout is more prohibitive cost of drugs at a time Your Excellency and the Coordinating Minister of Health, keep assuring the citizens of Nigeria that you are doing everything possible to bring down the rising cost of drugs in Nigeria.’’
Lamenting the effects of the development, the bodies further said, ‘’India, which is the biggest source of our APIs and FPPs in Nigeria, has facilitated the growth of its local pharmaceutical industry through friendly and result-oriented goals and objectives such that the local pharma industry in India contributes close to 3% of the GDP of India today. India runs policies that are suitable for its citizens to compel access to affordable medicines and does not allow itself to be subsumed to the unrealistic gargantuan propensities of global imperialists, who continue to manipulate trade and economic balance to permanently tilt in favour of their whims and caprices. Nigeria, with poor foundational advances in the pharma industry, is currently enjoying level three ratings, while productive and fruitful India is on level one.’’
They accused the NAFDAC DG of sabotaging the Nigeria pharma industry which would move “Nigeria to level 4 rating in an act grounded only in self-glorification’’, adding that, ‘’The only interest of Prof. Adeyeye in this new adventure that is bound to stifle growth in the Nigeria Pharma Industry.’’
‘’We must make the point that the primary responsibility of public officers is to serve and work towards the national interest and certainly not foreign expectations.
‘’If Prof. Adeyeye seeks a WHO appointment, the FG must encourage her now to quit as DG, NAFDAC for her preferred international job, rather than allow her to continue to mess-up genuine attempts to boost the growth of our local industry which is all we have seen in the over 6 years of her stewardship at NAFDAC,” they added.
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