National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), yesterday, assured of the country’s commitment to cut imports of pharmaceutical products by 70 per cent, deploring the industry’s heavy dependence on foreign products.

The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, dropped the hint at a sustainable healthcare development workshop on ‘Local Manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and excipients in Lagos.

She told The Guardian that NAFDAC is working to change the situation from 70 per cent to 30 per cent imports and 70 per cent local manufacturing.

Adeyeye admitted the COVID-19 pandemic taught Nigeria a bitter lesson about the importance of local manufacturing, as many countries hoarded pharmaceutical products during the crisis period.

She confirmed that NAFDAC is engaging with drug companies to begin production of APIs, the raw materials used to make pharmaceutical products.

Her words: “The drive for NAFDAC since my first tenure is to ensure that regarding the 70 per cent of products that we import, we change the paradigm. We change the narrative to about 30 per cent of imports so that we can manufacture about 70 per cent locally. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us a bitter lesson because there was hoarding of pharmaceutical products.”

The DG stressed that the quality of APIs directly impacts quality of the final product.

Substandard APIs, she warned, could not only compromise the effectiveness of medicines, but also pose serious risks to public health, potentially damaging vital organs such as the kidney, liver and heart.