THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has debunked report of the circulation of dangerous anti-malaria medicines in Nigeria, contrary to the claim by the Senate that about 42 killer anti-malarial drugs banned by the European Union (EU) were still in circulation in the country.
Dousing tension about the banned anti-malaria drugs, the Acting Director General of NAFDAC, Mrs Yetunde Oni, in a press briefing in Lagos assured that the alleged banned anti-imalarial medicines were no longer in the Nigerian market.
“I wish to state categorically that these anti-malarial monotherapies are not recommended for treatment of malaria in Nigeria,” she assured.
“It is pertinent to mention that the allegedly banned anti-malarial medicines are oral monotherapies containing single Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) such as Artesunate as contained in Arinate tablet. Others are Amodiaquine as contained in Camoquine, Dihydroartemisinin contained in Alaxin tablet and Pyrimethamine contained in Daraprim tablet.”
She said that NAFDAC had stopped registration of anti-malaria monotherapies in line with the recommendation of the Nigeria National Anti-Malarial Treatment Policy and the WHO.
According to Oni, the recommended anti-malarial medicines for treatment of malaria in Nigeria are Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs).
“The use of ACTs in the treatment of malaria is in line with the guidelines for the treatment of malaria, 3rd edition, World Health Organisation (WHO) 2015, Geneva Switzerland. The Nigeria National Anti-Malarial Treatment Policy, February 2005 supports the use of ACTs.
The Nigerian Senate had earlier released a list of 42 banned anti-malaria medicines that were purportedly in circulation in hospitals and pharmacies and are consumed by Nigerians.
The body saddled with the responsibility of safeguarding the health of the nation, however, revealed how Nigerians can identify original ACTs.
“Any anti-malaria drug that does not have the scratch and text techniques should not be in circulation,” Oni warned, maintaining that “Every anti-malaria drug should have an authentication scratch and text techniques. It is the first line of checking the quality of the medicine.”
Speaking further, she disclosed that “Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) is also a combination of anti-malarial medicine recommended by both WHO and the Nigeria National Anti-Malarial Treatment Policy for Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) of malaria.
She further noted that NAFDAC, in collaboration with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) carried out a survey on the quality of anti-malarial medicines in 2015.
“The report of the survey was presented to stakeholders on 11th August 2015 and it was revealed that 3.6% of the nine hundred (900) samples of anti-malarial medicines procured from six (6) geopolitical zones of the country failed quality test while 96.4% passed.
Anti-malarial monotherapies in the distribution chain were captured during the survey to enable the Agency mop them from circulation” she explained.
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