Drug abuse: No new registration for alcohol in sachets ― NAFDAC DG

Prof Mojisola Adeyeye

THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has identified alcohol packaged in sachets as greatly contributing to increasing drug and alcohol abuse in the society.

To this end, NAFDAC has said there will be no new registration for alcohol packaged in sachets.

Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye announced this at an interactive session with various stakeholders in food and drugs manufacturing, held in Ibadan, on Tuesday.

Expressing worry at the increasing spate of drug abuse, she further said the agency would, in the next five years, phase out the use of small pet bottles to package alcohol.

She vowed that the agency remained undaunted in its efforts to reduce the incidence of substandard and falsified products as well as the smuggling and abuse of various products.

Addressing questions on NAFDAC not giving full registration status to herbal medicines, Adeyeye said the agency was keen on having such medicines widely accepted as safe hence will continue to test them for clinical efficacy before giving full registration status.

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In light of this, she said the agency was embarking on turning herbal medicines into products that can be commercialised through collaboration between traditional herbalists and academic researchers.

In encouraging local manufacturing of medicines that are usually imported, Adeyeye said the agency would enforce the five years importation permit given to manufacturers with a mandate that they produce five years plan geared towards local manufacturing upon renewal.

In addition, the NAFDAC DG said the agency will give five years exclusive rights to companies to market their products without competition if they develop food and drugs that show demonstrable research and development innovation.

This development, she said, will be effective before the end of the first quarter of the year.

S-Davies Wande