NAFDAC speaks on report of alleged under-dosed paracetamol

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says the recent publication claiming that paracetamol drugs in Nigeria are under-dosed is fake.

“There is nothing wrong with our paracetamol.The publication is fake and I’m speaking from the perspective of a professor,” Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

Mrs Adeyeye said that the publication was a disservice to Nigeria, adding that academic publications need to be more rsponsive to issues of public health.

A 2023 study with samples from five paracetamol brands claiming to contain 500mg paracetamol as its active ingredient were 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 study’s researchers raised concerns about the possibility of treatment failure due to under-dosed paracetamol tablets.

Mrs Adeyeye, however, said that findings have shown that the said publication has been retracted.

The NAFDAC boss, who cautioned against playing on the intelligence of Nigerians, enjoined all Nigerians to use paracetamol.

“There is nothing wrong with our paracetamol. The publication is fake and I’m speaking from the perspective of a professor,” she said.

She 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 package to know where to go, to know how many samples to take.

“So that statistically when the results come out it can be validated. So they went and took samples from Abuja and Lagos.

“But as a scientists we did the test using international standard not a Nigerian university standard, not a Nigerian standard, not a West African standard,” she said.

She argued that there is no single lab in Nigeria that is better than that of NAFDAC, adding that the agency had been judicious in its financial management.

She added: “That lab were 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 few countries have such attainment or laboratory have such attainment in Africa.”

The NAFDAC boss said that the agency was building quality culture in the industry and encouraging local production of food and drugs to allow for more jobs and save foreign exchange. (NAN)