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| From L-R, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, D-G NAFDAC; Dr Stanley Okolo, D-G WAHO; Ms Aissatou Diack, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank, at the 5th Steering Committee Meeting of the West African Medicines Regulatory and Harmonisation Project in Lagos on Saturday (NAN) |
Prof. Stanley Okolo, Director-General, WAHO, restated the commitment at the 5th Steering Committee Meeting of the West African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative in Lagos.
The meeting held from January 31 to February 2.
According to him, the main purpose of the meeting is to appraise the Medicines Regulatory Harmonization related activities in the region during the year 2018 and to recommend key actions and activities to be implemented in 2019 with the sole aim of strengthening the performance of the project.
He said, โIntegration of national efforts to accelerate the well-being of the people is of great importance to the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.
โIt is for this reason that WAHO has been mandated to promote better health through regional integration.
โThe quality of health of over 350 million people in the region is paramount and it is a great honour for me to lead this steering committee to strategise and take decisions to ensure access to quality, safe, efficient and affordable medical products for the people.
โI, therefore, wish to use this opportunity to re-emphasise here that the regionโs highest goal is to have medicines whose quality is not disputed and they are accessible to all, regardless of where the people live.
โWe must all support the ongoing process to achieve our goal; as such, the diversity of capacities and efficiency of the National Medicines Regulatory Authorities are needed to manage the multifaceted approaches to pave the way for success.
โI, together with staff at WAHO affirm our commitment and I believe that all present are equally committed to this vision.โ
Okolo said that through the journey of the harmonisation, regulation and integration processes, โWe may face challenges taking into consideration the limited human and financial resources.โ
โThese challenges could happen when building consensus due to our diversities and the level of communication.
โThe length of time it takes to get medicines registered, the responsibility to strengthen the local production of medicines and the need to increase the quantum of medicines in the region.
โThe fight against the high incidence of substandard and falsified medicines circulating in the region, and the improvement of the capacity building of medicines quality control laboratories are also factors to consider.
โHowever, this should not deter us from achieving our common goal.
โAnd that is why we have agreed to jointly register and regulate medicines produced locally and imported into the region with the aim of reducing the time of registration and improving access to medicines as well as ensure better regulatory oversight.โ
He commended WAHOโs sister institution, the West African Monetary and Economic Union for being very instrumental in bringing the harmonised processes of medicines regulation so far into reality and we are very much grateful for the support.
He also expressed his profound gratitude to the Federal Minister of Health of Nigeria for accepting to host the gathering.
According to the WAHO director-general, this strongly indicates the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to public health issues and the interventions of the West African Health Organisation in particular.
Also, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, Director-General, NAFDAC, said that porosity of the borders enable substandard and fake drugs to find their way into the Nigerian market, hence the need to strengthen collaboration and vigilance.
According to her, NAFDAC is actively working to check the menace.
โNAFDAC is set up in such a way that we have representatives in all the 36 states of the country and FCT.
โOur people are spread around the country to ensure that there is a lot of pharmacovigilance and post-marketing surveillance that continuously takes place.
โWe seize products once we know they are substandard, falsified or unregistered, as there are many products that are unregistered in Nigeria.
โAnd it is because of the porosity of the borders,โ Adeyeye said.
