Agency Seeks Pharma Firms Investment In Vaccines Production

Director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has challenged pharmaceutical product manufacturers in the country to make the necessary investment decisions to facilitate the production of human vaccines in Nigeria.

Adeyeye spoke at the 2025 investiture ceremony and lecture of Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy (NAPHARM) held at the College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos.

She warned that Nigeria should not wait for another pandemic before it gets prepared and avoid being caught unawares, as witnessed during COVID-19, when the country depended on international donors to survive the scourge.

“When I came to NAFDAC, we had the registration and regulatory affairs directorate, which was in charge of registration of all NAFDAC-regulated products, meaning the registration of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, herbal medicines, vaccines, veterinary products, pesticides, and other finished chemicals was under one Director, which made the system susceptible to ineffectiveness and corruption.

“I first carved out the Food Registration and Regulatory Affairs Directorate, and what was left over was still huge. If you want good governance and leadership, you must have governable units and groups. One Director overseeing seven regulated products will not achieve the necessary efficiency. That was why we knew we had to separate vaccines and medical devices from the Drug Registration and Regulatory Affairs Directorate.

“NAFDAC became Maturity Level 3 in 2022 for medicines and imported vaccines.

NAFDAC will be benchmarked for vaccines, biologics, and medical devices. We had to have a separate directorate headed by a director to ensure we align with international best practices and operate at the same level as advanced countries worldwide.”

She disclosed that the agency had to separate Vaccines, Biologics, and Medical Devices in November 2024 to form one directorate, following the Head of Service of the Federation’s assessment, evaluation, and sanction, to ensure it would be a viable Directorate with operating units.

The DG expressed the hope that the nation would manufacture vaccines before she leaves office, saying, “It will be exciting news for me because during the pandemic, we were too dependent on foreign countries. We could not get any vaccines unless they were from outside the country. That was when the preparedness for epidemics became a reality for us.”

She stated that the agency now has guidelines for emergency preparedness for epidemics and pandemics, warning that if there is another pandemic now and Nigeria is not yet manufacturing human vaccines, despite having manufactured veterinary vaccines since 1924, the country will again be at the mercy of other countries.