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 merchandise manufacturers successful the state to marque the indispensable concern decisions to facilitate the accumulation of quality vaccines successful Nigeria.

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

She warned that Nigeria should not hold for different pandemic earlier it gets prepared and debar being caught unawares, arsenic witnessed during COVID-19, erstwhile the state depended connected planetary donors to past the scourge.

“When I came to NAFDAC, we had the registration and regulatory affairs directorate, which was successful complaint of registration of each NAFDAC-regulated products, meaning the registration of food, drugs, cosmetics, aesculapian devices, herbal medicines, vaccines, veterinary products, pesticides, and different finished chemicals was nether 1 Director, which made the strategy susceptible to ineffectiveness and corruption.

“I archetypal carved retired the Food Registration and Regulatory Affairs Directorate, and what was near implicit was inactive huge. If you privation bully governance and leadership, you indispensable person governable units and groups. One Director overseeing 7 regulated products volition not execute the indispensable efficiency. That was wherefore we knew we had to abstracted vaccines and aesculapian devices from the Drug Registration and Regulatory Affairs Directorate.

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

NAFDAC volition beryllium benchmarked for vaccines, biologics, and aesculapian devices. We had to person a abstracted directorate headed by a manager to guarantee we align with planetary champion practices and run astatine the aforesaid level arsenic precocious countries worldwide.”

She disclosed that the bureau had to abstracted Vaccines, Biologics, and Medical Devices successful November 2024 to signifier 1 directorate, pursuing the Head of Service of the Federation’s assessment, evaluation, and sanction, to guarantee it would beryllium a viable Directorate with operating units.

The DG expressed the anticipation that the federation would manufacture vaccines earlier she leaves office, saying, “It volition beryllium breathtaking quality for maine due to the fact that during the pandemic, we were excessively babelike connected overseas countries. We could not get immoderate vaccines unless they were from extracurricular the country. That was erstwhile the preparedness for epidemics became a world for us.”

She stated that the bureau present has guidelines for exigency preparedness for epidemics and pandemics, informing that if determination is different pandemic present and Nigeria is not yet manufacturing quality vaccines, contempt having manufactured veterinary vaccines since 1924, the state volition again beryllium astatine the mercy of different countries.