NAFDAC, Ethiopia want collaboration to curb global drug adulteration

THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Ethiopian health authorities have reiterated the need for countries to collaborate to curb the global menace of drug adulteration and counterfeiting.

Making the assertion yesterday in Lagos during the visit of officials of the Ethiopian Food Medicine and Healthcare Administration and Control Authority (EFMHACA), NAFDAC Director-General, Dr. Paul Orhii, stated that globalisation has made it possible for “different components of the products manufactured in different countries” to find their ways into developing countries fast.

The NAFDAC boss said for countries to effectively regulate drug movement and consumption, they “have to build collaboration with other international countries.”

Orhii explained that counterfeiters driven by NAFDAC from the Nigerian space have found their ways into other African countries waiting for opportunity to bounce back into Nigeria to cause havoc, a menace, he said, collaboration would help to tackle.

The officials of the EFMHACA came to Nigeria to understudy the activities of NAFDAC in drug regulation and control.

Speaking on behalf of the Ethiopian delegates, EFMHACA Deputy Director and Policy Adviser to Director-General of Ethiopian Ministry of Health, Mr. DawitDikassodilbeto, explained that “the visit is related to the regulatory system experience sharing,” adding: “Nigeria has developed very nice and broad system for regulation of foods and medicines, and we have been following up the development in the last two years.”