January 26, (THEWILL) – The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has dismissed as fake a recent publication claiming that paracetamol drugs in Nigeria are under-dosed.
Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, in Abuja.
Adeyeye, who described the publication as a disservice to Nigeria, urged the academic publication to be more responsive to issues of public health.
A 2023 study with samples from five paracetamol brands, claiming to contain 500mg paracetamol as its active ingredient, was said to have been tested and analysed using the spectrophotometric method. But the paracetamol concentrations were reportedly found to range from 185mg to 358mg, which is less than the recommended 500mg.
The researchers raised concerns about the possibility of treatment failure due to under-dosed paracetamol tablets.
Adeyeye, however, said that findings have shown that the said publication has been retracted.
“There is nothing wrong with our paracetamol. The publication is fake and I’m speaking from the perspective of a professor,” Adeyeye said while she enjoined all Nigerians to use paracetamol.
The NAFDAC boss said as a scientist she proved the publication wrong and immediately the agency instructed its staff to do sampling.
“And when you are doing sampling, you don’t do sampling in one place. We used 36 made RS2 software of mathematical packages to know where to go, know how many samples to take so that statistically when the results come out they can be validated. So, they went and took samples from Abuja and Lagos.
“But as scientists we did the test using an international standard, not a Nigerian university standard, not a Nigerian standard, not a West African standard.
“That lab where these products were tested this week is a WHO pre-qualified laboratory and we have been working on that for about six years.
“We got that in September 2023, WHO pre-qualified laboratory, only a few countries have such attainment or laboratory have such attainment in Africa,” she added.
The NAFDAC boss said that the agency was building a quality culture in the industry and encouraging local production of food and drugs to allow for more jobs and save foreign exchange.
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