Nigeria capable of making quality vaccines – NAFDAC

NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said vaccines produced in Nigeria, including those for COVID-19, will be of internationally acceptable standards.

  Director-General of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this during an oversight visit to the agency’s facilities and COVID-19 laboratory projects in Lagos by members of House of Representatives Committee on COVID 19.

  According to Adeyeye, the health sector had hitherto been neglected before the present administration responded through the COVID-19 committees of the National Assembly.

  “If the regulatory agency is not strengthened, the industry will not be strengthened. We have the African Free Trade Agreement already here with us now for the nation’s pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of with quality products. For the vaccine, we are hoping that the vaccine facilities from the public-private partnership will soon happen, but if the regulatory agency is not strong, we can make a vaccine that will destroy our own people. With NAFDAC now very strong with World Health Organisation Maturity Level 3 certifications. Nigeria can now make her own vaccines, and we can assure the populace that there is quality in whatever is being manufactured because of NAFDAC’s strength,” Adeyeye said.

  Speaking, Chairman of House Committee on COVID-19, Haruna Mshelia, commended the NAFDAC DG and her management team for leveraging the latest technology to upgrade the agency to a standard that is second to none in Africa.