Israel, NAFDAC partner to tackle fake, substandard drugs

As part of efforts to address concerns over rise in sub standard and falsified medicines in the country, Israel has expressed its desire to strengthen its collaboration on the quality of health care in Nigeria through the National Agency for Food & Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC).

Consequently, Israel in partnership with NAFDAC organized a seminar to promote activities relating to the collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products in the country.

Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, urged participants to take advantage of the capacity building exercise to apply knowledge gained to minimizing the incidence of sub standard products, adding the need for sustained relationship for the benefit of the both countries.

According to her, the seminar aims at building internal capacity, with emphasis on track and trace, adding the importance to know that the medicine that left the site is the same medicine that the patient is getting.

“We will have track and trace desk in NAFDAC to make sure people get quality. We also have to ensure that adverse effects of drugs that happen anywhere in the country is reported so we can have a record,” she said.

Adeyeye explained: “During the World Health Assembly in Geneva, I emphasised the importance of quality medicines for Africans, the need to strength the regulatory system and involve local manufacturing to provide jobs and for drug security.”

Ambassador of the State of Israel to Nigeria, Shimon Ben-Shoshan noted that the seminar is about sharing knowledge, cooperation and having Israel share their experiences.

He stressed the need for having the right information, by telling a story of when Israeli doctors who came to Nigeria for a visit, encountered a child of about 10 years who had an eye defect, which made him almost blind. The child was observed and anti biotic eye drop was administered to the child, which corrected the defect and he began to see clearly, which saved him from having to go through surgery.

He explained that the partnership would enable facilitation of information exchange between the nations and upscale collaborative activities in the health sector.

Commissioner for health, Lagos, Olajide Idris stressed on the need for Universal Health Care (UHC), which includes, access to quality health services, essential medicine, safety and quality of care.

He noted that the major challenges in the health sector in Nigeria are diseases, anti- microbial resistance, communicable diseases and mental health, adding that the partnership between the two countries would help curb the challenges.