At the event were the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire; Chairman of NAFDAC Governing Council, Iluwa Abdul-Kadir; DG of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye; and the representatives of the World Health Organisation, African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development, as well as other global health agencies.

Okolo said, “With the high incidence of both communicable and non-communicable diseases in Africa, the issue of substandard and falsified medicines circulating in our markets is a double problem that results in thousands of preventable deaths annually. Any situation that disrupts the pharmaceutical supply chain resulting in a shortage of quality medicines can only compound the problem of falsified medicines we face in Africa. We are therefore facing a major problem.

 “Let me go back to the ongoing Covid-19 and the lessons we should draw from the potential threat to drug supplies. Our ultimate objective must be to reduce dependency on drug imports into Africa and promote our traditional medicines.”

In her address, the NAFDAC DG, Prof. Adeyeye, made reference to a number of methods employed by fake drugs peddlers, saying the agency had also changed its approach in its bid to apprehend culprits.

She said, “We want to make sure that Africans get the medicine they deserve, to reduce substandard medicine in the African market. Quality control is the voice of African Medicine Regulatory Harmonisation and the goals include convergence, driving harmonisation, reliance and sharing of best practices.

“Sometimes during registration, manufacturers with little reputation may give an ideal formation and then in post marketing, they will start playing on us. NAFDAC has now changed its approach. We now go after them once their products get into the market or the country.

“I was in Asaba and seized vaccine that was stored at 40 degree centigrade because it was falsified. If you think of Universal Health Coverage, you have to think of the capacity to test if drugs are not genuine.”

Efforts at tackling coronavirus in focus — Minister 

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said the inability of his ministry to make procurements has not hampered the country’s preparation for a possible coronavirus epidemic.

Ehanire said this during a chat with The PUNCH on Tuesday in response to an earlier publication.

The minister said, “It is true that we have been unable to make procurements because it is being done on our behalf by the Ministry of Agriculture; but the matter of coronavirus is being handled by the NCDC. The role of the ministry is supervisory and the funds given to the ministry are mainly for port health services. 

“The Presidency has actually been very supportive. In fact, we were given more than what we had asked for.”

Ehanire said the suspension of the procurement power of the health ministry was an administrative affair which would be sorted out.

The PUNCH had reported how the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had stripped the ministry of its powers to make procurements.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had been making procurements on behalf of the health ministry since October, 2018.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who had earlier denied development, later told The PUNCH that it was caused by the health ministry’s decision to overspend the amount approved for it.

He said, “The Ministry of Agriculture was appointed to do procurement on their behalf arising from a problem which was brought to the attention of the government by the Bureau of Public Procurement. They were authorised to spend N2bn but they spent N7bn.”

source:  Punch