FG bans alcohol in sachets and small polythene due to it's negative effects on public health

Two days after the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) cautioned the public on the consumption of alcohol in sachet, the Federal Government has banned alcohol in polyethylene terephthalate and glass bottles.

This is contained in a statement by Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of the agency on Saturday, September 12, 2020.

In a statement on Friday, September 11, 2020, the NAFDAC boss had advised Nigerians to avoid unregistered alcoholic products.

According to NAFDAC, the Federal Ministry of Health is concerned about the high incidence of substance and alcohol abuse and its negative effects on public health.

The statement reads, “NAFDAC under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Health, once again, wishes to bring to the attention of the general public, concerns relating to the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in sachets, small volume glass and PET bottles.

“These concerns relate to negative effects of irresponsible alcohol consumption on public health and on the safety and security of the public, alcohol being a toxic and psychoactive substance with dependence producing properties.

“Uncontrolled access and availability of high concentration alcohol in sachet and small volume PET or glass bottles has been put forward as a factor contributing to substance and alcohol abuse in Nigeria with its negative impact on the society.

“The World Health Organisation reports that alcohol consumption contributes to three million deaths each year globally as well as to the disabilities and poor health of millions of people.

“NAFDAC with full support of the Federal Ministry of Health has continued to exercise its regulatory responsibilities by ensuring that all alcoholic beverages and other regulated products approved by the agency meet set standards of quality, safety and wholesomeness.

“The Federal Ministry of Health is concerned about the high incidence of substance and alcohol abuse in the country and NAFDAC, being the competent authority and working with relevant stakeholders, is increasing efforts to stem this.

“With regard to alcohol, major stakeholders have been engaged at the highest level and are already sensitised to the issue. To this end, several interventions jointly agreed upon by major stakeholders are being undertaken and as a first step, no new products in sachet and small volume PET or glass bottles above 30 per cent ABV will be registered by NAFDAC.

“Furthermore, to reduce availability and curb abuse, effective January 31 2020, producers of alcohol in sachets and small volume PET and glass bottles are to reduce production by 50 per cent of capacity prior to January 2020. The overall goal is a complete phase out of high concentration alcohol in sachets and small PET and glass bottles in line with the agreed roadmap or earlier.”

It would be recalled that NAFDAC recently expressed its commitment to prevent young people and other vulnerable and high risk group from easy access to alcohol in the country.

NAFDAC urges herbalists to collaborate with researchers on acceptable products

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has urged herbal medicine practitioners to collaborate with researchers to make herbal products internationally acceptable after clinical trials.

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of the agency, made the plea on Tuesday.

Adeyeye said in a statement that the African Traditional Medicines Day that holds every Aug. 31 should be a daily reflection of who we are as Africans.

She said that many Nigerians were using herbal medicine every day.

“NAFDAC has been focussing on making traditional herbal medicines prominent with regards to its activities.

“To this end, in March 2019, long before the advent of COVID-19 in Nigeria, we called for a meeting of all stakeholders including academia, herbal medicine practitioners and legal practitioners.

“The essence of the meeting was to engender a culture of collaborative efforts aimed at promoting research, discovery and production of herbal products,” she said.

According to her, herbal medicines renaissance in Nigeria had already begun.

She said the country has the biodiversity and complementary human capital to sustain herbal medicines production.

“The Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is making loans available to qualified manufacturers of pharmaceutical products.

“The CBN has also launched the Health Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme to fund successful proposals on translational R&D and manufacturing of therapeutics, herbal medicines and medical devices for infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

“In addition, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is funding COVID-19 related herbal medicines clinical trial research through NAFDAC administrative oversight.

“The agency currently has about 40 applications on COVID-19 related herbal medicines submitted by interested parties, many of these are for listing, while only very few are for clinical trials.

“It is important to note that while the listing of herbal product guarantees safety, it is for two years at the first instance.

“An herbal product that has successfully gone through clinical trials would receive NAFDAC full registration and the claims of efficacy and cure can then be made by applicants,” she said.

Adeyeye said that further step to enhance collaborative efforts between the various stakeholders in the herbal medicines industry was the institutionalisation of confidentiality agreement among the parties.

“NAFDAC Legal Services Directorate developed the document and will broker the agreement.

“This is necessary to assure traditional practitioners that intellectual property will not be lost in the process of collaboration.

“The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Trade Mark Office, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion and patent legal practitioners in the area of protection of intellectual property were brought into discussions with the researchers and practitioners by the agency.

“NAFDAC development of modalities for registration of herbal products is to encourage the growth and standardisation of the sector,” the director-general said.

She said that the ultimate goal, with regards to traditional herbal medicines was to come up with products that were not only marketable in the country, but also acceptable globally.

Adeyeye said this could only happen when NAFDAC, as the regulatory authority, subjects products that were submitted for approval to global standards.

She, however, encouraged everyone with products to bring their applications forward.

According to her, registration procedures are already made simple through the published template of required documentation, guidance on registration and clinical trials and the agency’s online platform.

Source: Today.ng

40 Herbal Medicines Undergoing Review As Possible Coronavirus Cure – NAFDAC

The National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has disclosed that 40 herbal drugs are currently undergoing a review as possible Coronavirus cure.

Adeyeye who disclosed that the herbal drugs are undergoing review to ensure their safety for use averred that if the herbal drugs are not properly reviewed it could kill fast.

She noted that there is still no cure for Coronavirus and also warned against claims affirming such.

The NAFDAC DG said;

“In March 2019, we inaugurated the Nigerian Herbal Medicine Product Committee (HMPC) to bridge the gap often created between traditional medicine practitioners and researchers.
“COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity and we have been encouraging traditional medicine practitioners to submit their herbal formulations for evaluation.

“We also developed guidelines on how to register herbal medicine online and the labelling of the product.
“Prof. Maurice Iwu’s application for approval of herbal medicine for the management of COVID-19 is also part of the 40 applications we are reviewing for safety.
“We use an animal for safety test to ensure the formulation will not kill anybody.
“Until a clinical trial is done in a scientific manner, no herbal medicine manufacturer can claim cure or effectiveness to treat COVID-19 associated symptoms.
“I believe that Nigeria’s herbal medicines may be able to cure COVID-19.
“They have a lot of potentials and it is time to translate the research of herbs into products of proven safety and efficacy, for the benefit of our people.”

Source: GT24

I inherited N3.2 billion debt –NAFDAC DG

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said on Tuesday that she inherited a debt of N3.2 billion when she assumed office in November 2017.

Adeyeye speaking at an online news conference to highlight the activities of the agency, said that, however, the debt had been settled.

“I am happy to inform you that we have been able to pay our debts and we are also training our 2,200 members of staff to enhance competence, capability as well as productivity.”

According to her, the sum of N7 billion was generated in 2017; while N2.5 billion and N3.1 billion were generated from the agency’s IGR windows in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

She also said that the agency was in dire need of an overhaul to achieve its mandate.

“About 80 per cent of the equipment in the agency’s laboratories are not functioning, directors have no laptops to work with, incessant industrial actions and lack of utility vehicles are the many problems facing the agency.

“When I resumed office, it was like being thrown into an ocean of problems, so, I started digging into why the agency got into such debt and how to get out of it.

“For 30 years as a professor, my life has been in the laboratory.

“I was shocked when I saw that 80 per cent of the equipment in the NAFDAC laboratories were not functioning.

“And everything the agency does requires laboratory tests – from water to drugs, food products, chemicals and others.

“We decided to review and overhaul our operations by adopting quality management system which enables us to upgrade the ICT system to ensure online documentation, computerised transactions, e-registration and e-certification of food and drug products,” she said.

“I also met about 6,000 backlog of applications for approval of different products.

“We also adopted ‘Customer First’ strategy and gave a mandate for the applications to be cleared within two months and it was done.

“Time of approval used to take months but when I came in, the duration for the approval was reduced to 90 days for food products and 120 days for drugs.

“It is very expensive to equip a laboratory as it costs between N270 million and N350 million for one piece of equipment in the laboratory.

“So, we started to save for the purchase of equipment while we pay off our debt gradually.

“We have seven laboratories across the country and we have bought eight basic equipment. It is not enough because the goal is to have 20 of such equipment,” she said.

Adeyeye said that the quality management system and customer first strategy adopted had helped to sanitise the agency’s budget and increased its internally generated revenue.

The NAFDAC’s D-G also said that the agency decentralised its operations across the country by establishing 23 directorates for faster and effective service delivery.

According to her, the agency resumed its operations at the nation’s ports and borders in May 2018 to prevent and reduce the influx of substandard and counterfeit products entering the country.

Adeyeye said that the agency was working hard to attain the level-3 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Benchmark System that would enable vaccines to be produced in the country.

Source: News Agency Of Nigeria

NAFDAC has approved Madagascar’s initiative that ensured its herbal cure for the Coronavirus pandemic.

National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has approved Madagascar’s initiative that ensured its herbal cure for the Coronavirus pandemic.

This approval was made by the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, today 14th May, 2020.

“We are proud of them (Madagascar). They appreciate what they have. We do not. She said.

“All the herbs they have and are using, we have them. But we do not use them the way they are doing.

“They appreciate their brains and use them. We must do same here if we want to develop as a nation,” she told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Thursday in Abuja.

She regretted that Nigeria had consistently depended on what others were bringing to it, and emphasised the need to look inward for solutions to our concerns.

Adeyeye said that the novel Coronavirus had jolted the country, and challenged those in authority to make the health sector a major priority.

“COVID-19 has slapped us in the face. It has kicked us back and front. We are now facing the stark realities of being insecure.

“There is drug insecurity, medical devices insecurity, test kits insecurity; we have always depended on other nations for everything.

“India, for instance, is not supplying medicals to us again because they are thinking about their own people.

“We have been using Dogonyaro (Neem tree) for ages. Some other African countries have developed their herbal remedies.

“Which one can we claim to have developed in Nigeria? What we are looking for in Madagascar, we may have it in our backyard,’’ the director general said.