NAFDAC bans sale, use of 101 drugs

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has announced the withdrawal, suspension, or cancellation of 101 pharmaceutical products, effective immediately.

The decision is contained in a statement released on the Agency X handle on Tuesday.

According to the statement, affected products “are therefore no longer permitted for manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale and use within Nigeria.”

It explained that the list of products can be accessed on the NAFDAC website.

Checks revealed the discontinued products include widely used drugs like Abacavir and Amlodipine.

The list covers hundreds of items across medicines and health products from antimalarials (various artemether/lumefantrine formulations) and cardiovascular drugs (valsartan products) to insulin/growth-hormone injectables (Norditropin), diabetes medicines (Januvia/Janumet), inhalers and eye drops.

The move comes amid growing global concerns about counterfeit and substandard medicines.

A 2023 World Health Organisation report estimates that up to 10 per cent of medicines in low- and middle-income countries are falsified or of poor quality.

NAFDAC explained that the reasons for the sanction include licencing issues and voluntary withdrawal by the market authorisation holder.

It said, “The Certificate of Registration of a product is said to be withdrawn when the use of the Certificate of Registration of that product is discontinued upon request of the Market Authorisation Holder.

“The Certificate of Registration of a product may be suspended when the conditions upon which the NAFDAC Registration license was issued are no longer met, and the Agency is to make a determination.

“The Certificate of Registration of a product is said to be cancelled when the NAFDAC Certificate of Registration license of that product is revoked by NAFDAC.”