The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has appointed the global testing and Inspection agency to strengthen her fight against imported substandard regulated products from China and India.
The Resident Media Consultant to NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, adding that this was done to ensure that only safe and high-quality products are exported into Nigeria.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye announced the development at a hybrid Technical Meeting on Mitigating Substandard and Counterfeit Products through the Clean Report of Inspection and Analysis (CRIA) Scheme.
Prof. Adeyeye noted that globally, the manufacture and trade of substandard and falsified medicines (SFs) had become a lucrative crime, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in economic sabotage, treatment failures, drug resistance, and loss of lives.
According to the DG, the growth of SFs is fuelled by inadequate vigilance, corruption, lack of regulatory and political will, insufficient technology, and patronage by healthcare providers, stressing that in Nigeria however, NAFDAC has made significant progress in addressing the prevalence of SFs.
Prof Adeyeye emphasised that, “the presence of SFs poses several challenges, including:
Decreased confidence in healthcare systems due to the targeting of high-demand drugs in public health.
“Therapeutic failure, adverse drug reactions, and increased drug resistance.
Loss of lives resulting from the availability of substandard medicines.
Significant financial losses for genuine importers and manufacturers, with criminals profiting instead”.
She explained that the Clean Report of Inspection and Analysis (CRIA) was one of NAFDACs anti-counterfeiting strategies aimed at preventing the importation of substandard and falsified medicines and other regulated products into Nigeria.
Prof. Adeyeye said the CRIA Scheme was currently operational in China and India and has significantly strengthened regulatory control over products exported from these countries to Nigeria, adding that it ensures that only safe and high-quality products are shipped while preventing the export of substandard, counterfeit, and non-compliant products.
She disclosed that in the last five years, CRIA agents had successfully stopped nearly 200 consignments of products that failed laboratory testing at the country of origin and prevented shipments that did not meet NAFDACs documentation and labelling requirements.
The Newly appointed CRIA Agent, COTECNA Inspection Services represented by Vice President, Verification of Conformity and Africa, Mrs Lena Sodergren opined that the collaboration between COTECNA and NAFDAC was a testament to shared commitment to consumer safety, product quality and facilitation of international trade.
“COTECNA is entering the partnership with the aim to deliver the best possible services by leveraging on its unwavering dedication to ensuring compliance and top quality with its expertise in inspection, testing and certification adding that I can confirm that the NAFDAC CRIA scheme is the most comprehensive food and drug, cosmetics programme in Africa and other continent as well”, she said.
In his opening remarks, Director of Ports Inspection Directorate (PID), Dr. Olakunle Olaniran disclosed that his Directorate gained tremendously from the deployment of the CRIA Scheme, especially in the close to 200 regulated products that had been either stopped from coming into the country or intercepted on arrival following intel from the countries of origin.
He said that intercepted cases range from outright falsified products or documents, alteration of labels, or attempts to ship products that have failed laboratory tests, adding that, “we have also had a few cases that deliberately attempted to evade CRIA screening for unacceptable reasons. These have always been apprehended and sanctioned as appropriate”.
