NAFDAC Bans Sale And Use Of 101 Drugs

NAFDAC, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, has announced the ban 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 encompasses hundreds of items across various medicines and health products, including antimalarials (such as artemether/lumefantrine formulations) and cardiovascular drugs (valsartan products), as well as insulin/growth-hormone injectables (Norditropin), diabetes medications (Januvia/Janumet), inhalers, and eye drops.
The move comes amid growing global concerns about counterfeit and substandard medicines.

NAFDAC explained that the reasons for the sanction include licensing 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It said, “The Certificate of Registration of a product is said to be withdrawn when the use of the Certificate of Registration of that product is discontinued upon request of the Market Authorisation Holder.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 decide.

“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.”