The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has revealed that over 50% of the certificates of pharmaceutical products imported into Nigeria are fake. The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, made this disclosure during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting with regulators, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies in Abuja.
According to Adeyeye, the goal of the engagement meeting is to ensure that medical products in circulation meet the required quality standards and are safe and efficacious. She emphasized that substandard and falsified products pose a threat to the availability of safe, effective, and affordable medicines, which in turn undermines the achievement of universal health coverage in Nigeria and Africa.
Adeyeye stated, “We have found that more than 50% of the certificates of pharmaceutical products that enter our country are counterfeit. We have a scheme where, before approved medicines leave certain parts of the world, pre-shipment testing is conducted, and a certificate of pharmaceutical product is provided to assure us of quality. However, this has not been the case, as we have been able to prevent over 140 approved products from entering the country.”
She further highlighted that the prevalence of substandard and falsified medicines in Africa poses a significant threat to public health, largely due to limited regulation processes. In response, NAFDAC is intensifying its efforts to combat the issue based on three thematic areas: prevention, detection, and response. Additionally, NAFDAC’s commitment to fighting substandard and falsified medicines was recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2022 when it certified NAFDAC as a stable, well-functioning, and integrated regulatory system with a maturity level 3 rating on the Global Benchmarking Tool.