NAFDAC seeks collaboration with pharmaceutical distributors on drug traceability plan
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has urged pharmaceutical distributors and other stakeholders in the health sector to collaborate with it to actualize its five-year drug traceability plan for the country.
The agency’s Director of Registration and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Monica Eimunjeze, made the call while speaking about the plan at the Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Distributors Association of Nigeria’s conference held in Lagos.
The plan, she said, is aimed at curbing the distribution of fake drugs and improving the integrity of the pharmaceutical distribution chain in Nigeria.
“There is a regulatory framework in place. We have a distribution framework but we still have a long way to go. If we don’t have everybody implementing what we agreed to do, then you have fingers being pointed in different directions.
“There is a five years implementation plan for traceability and different elements to that plan.
“We are into awareness. We are also training industries on how to put things in place. It is a five-year plan and we are working towards it,” Dr. Eimunjeze said.
Also speaking at the conference, Mr. Ibrahim Ahmed, who represented the Registrar of Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, spoke on the challenges the government has encountered in creating alternatives to the open drug markets.
The federal government, Ahmed said, has made efforts to shut down open drug markets operating at Idumota, Lagos; Sabon Gari Market in Kano State, as well as Ariara Market in Aba, Abia State.
Ahmed, who is a pharmacist, said relocating these markets to designated areas where the drug distribution system can be properly monitored came with some challenges.