The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has inaugurated a 600-member Pharmacists Reserve Volunteer Program (PRVP) to boost its fight against substandard and fake medicines.
The PRVP will also support the agency’s efforts to enhance its ability to respond to drug-related emergencies across the country, The Nation said.
This was stated yesterday by the Director-General, NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye, during the inauguration of the Pharmacists from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The scheme, he added, would create a pool of qualified and vetted chemists who could be mobilised at short notice to assist the agency in product recalls, suspected circulation of fake medicines and emergencies in hard-to-reach places.
The program, she said, was part of efforts to bring regulation of drugs closer to Nigerians by strengthening the presence of NAFDAC beyond its laboratories and ports of entry. Africans & Diaspora
She added the 600 chemists, who are currently working in other sectors were chosen through a procedure that took into consideration merit, availability and regional representation.
The NAFDAC chairman said the participants are drawn from all the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Adeyeye said the program was not an internship or normal attachment but a scheme to establish a national reserve of pharmacists who would give additional regulatory support when needed.
The volunteers, she said, will be introduced to the practical aspects of medicines regulation which include pharmacovigilance, compliance monitoring, quality assurance, data gathering and public sensitisation against drug abuse.
The NAFDAC boss noted that the program was designed to improve the agency’s regulatory capacity at the community level, especially in markets, community pharmacy, patent medicine shops and primary health care centers.
“Regulation that lives only in the capital cannot protect a nation of over two hundred million people,” she added, adding that the volunteer program was aimed to take regulation “to the doorstep of the Nigerian people.”
Adeyeye said, “I hope that in the next few years, every state will have a standing pool of trained, vetted and mobilisable chemists working alongside NAFDAC state offices.”
Such a framework would help the agency respond better when public health issues concerning pharmaceuticals develop, she said.
“When there is a product recall, a suspected circulation of falsified medicines or an emergency in a hard-to-reach community, we need people who can volunteer for a few hours or days,” she said.
But the Director-General advised the volunteers that their effectiveness will be determined by discipline, integrity and confidentiality.
She asked them to stand firm against efforts to weaken their job, warning of the potential public safety ramifications of regulatory corruption.
Such offers should be rejected by patriotic Nigerians. The second a regulator can be bought, the public has no protection whatsoever,” she said. Africans & Diaspora
Adeyeye said availability and discipline are among the requirements anticipated of the volunteers, stressing that they must react immediately whenever called upon for assignments and that their responsibilities should be adequately performed.
She also warned them not to share sensitive information they collect during inspections and investigations on social media.
“The information you see during inspections and investigations belongs to the Agency and the people of Nigeria and not to social media,” she stated.
The volunteers were required to learn, she said, study NAFDAC rules, ask questions and properly document their efforts.
She also called on them to respect the communities where they will be working, stressing that they would be representing both NAFDAC and the pharmacy profession throughout their field assignments.
Adeyeye said the program will also assist the pharmacists professionally, in terms of real regulatory experience, training, mentorship and formal documentation of their work.
She added the volunteers will be exposed to topics including pharmacovigilance reporting, lab operations, risk communication and enforcement procedures.
Their service, she added, would be properly documented through certification and letters of service which would enhance their professional profiles before employers, licensing organisations and postgraduate schools in Nigeria and abroad. Africans and Diasporas
The programme’s coordinator and Director of Narcotics and Controlled Substances (NCS) Momodu Rametu said the initiative has grown from a call for expression of interest published only a few weeks ago into a national pool of 600 young chemists.
The PRVP would be an organised backstop system, which would complement NAFDAC in areas including emergency response, post-marketing regulation, drug-demand reduction and public engagement in regulatory operations, according to Rametu.
Also, the Coordinator of NAFDAC Training School, Tunde Sigbeku, said the volunteers would be trained to equip them with knowledge of the regulatory activities of the agency.
“The training will cover post-market surveillance, pharmacovigilance, prevention of antimicrobial resistance, veterinary medicines, inspection and enforcement, narcotics and controlled substances, drug abuse and research,” he said.
Volunteers might also help gather intelligence for monitoring, Sigbeku said, especially since they are spread around the country.
“The program is the first time the agency is creating a reserve of ‘foot soldiers’ across the country to help fight fake and substandard products,” he said.
Adeyeye encouraged the NAFDAC directors and the state coordinators to take ownership of the volunteers, coach them and deploy them meaningfully, so that the initiative would result to stronger regulatory capacity at the state level.
She administered the pledge of loyalty to the 600 pharmacists and formally declared the Pharmacists Reserve Volunteer Program inaugurated.
The project is expected to equip NAFDAC with an additional pool of qualified staff that can be mobilised during medicine-safety emergencies, while boosting the agency’s surveillance and public-sensitisation initiatives at community level.
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