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NAFDAC has initiated local production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, aiming to reduce the prevalence of fake and substandard medicines.
In a bid to encourage local manufacturing of medicine, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said the country had started local production of active ingredients needed for the manufacture of drugs.
NAFDAC said the push for local manufacture of medical products will help check the dumping of substandard medicine in the country.
Quoting statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the agency said 10 per cent of medicines sold in the middle and low-income countries were either fake or substandard.
Speaking during a sensitisation and awareness campaign on substandard and falsified medical products, held in Abuja on Monday, Director of Post Market Surveillance Directorate, Mr. Bitrus Fraden, said the country was making gradual progress in its desire to promote local manufacturing of medicines.
Fraden said, “Our effort at promoting local manufacturing of medical products are yielding fruits. We are beginning to produce what we call active pharmaceutical ingredients, here in Nigeria, what we need to be able to promote local manufacturing of medicines.”
He said the possibility of manufacturing medicine locally was an exciting development to NAFDAC because of the advantages.
“Apart from reduction in cost of pharmaceutical products, the agency will find it easier to monitor and regulate the products,” he said.
(NAPPMED), Mr. Theophilus Odoh, said the organisation was giving a firm commitment that its members were going to work towards eradicating falsified and substandard medical products in the market.
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