By Edoamaowo Udeme
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in a recent audit, has trailed 2, 405,724 million bottles of Codeine containing cough syrup and the Federal Ministry of Health has recalled all, in order to stem the tide of substance abuse in Nigeria.
This was made known by The Honourable Minister, Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, in Abuja, while receiving the final report of the Stakeholders Committee set up by the Ministry to address the worrisome menace.
In his speech, Prof Adewole said ” The audit trail and subsequent recall of the substance was part of the recommendations submitted by The 22man committee drafted from a broad spectrum of the health sector”
“The committee collaborated with relevant agencies as part of pharmacovigilance and renewed effort to actively monitor drug distribution channels and sanitise the system”. he stressed.
“The committee was an offshoot of the press release issued by the ministry on the temporary ban of Codeine production and distribution and further directive for NAFDAC to convene a Committee of stakeholders to chart the way forward”
The committee consisted of the Director General, NAFDAC, Professor Christianah M. Adeyeye(Chairman); Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Muhammad Mustapha Abdullah; Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria(PCN), Elijah Mohamed; Director, Food and Drugs Services(FMOH), Mr. Moshood Lawal.
Others are; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria(PSN) Ahmed I. Yakasai, Executive Secretary, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), Dr. Okey Akpa amongst others.
“The report involved 87 % of the manufacturers (20 out of the 23) of the companies. All the recalled products are warehoused in the respective companies” the Minister added.
