We’ve not evaluated product for claim made by producer, says NAFDAC

*Product safety test approval is not verification of producer’s claims ─Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Putting paid to the recent widespread claim that the regulatory agency has approved a local herbal product for the treatment of symptoms of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Nigeria’s National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said that safety test approval is not a stamp for verifying the producer’s claims.

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria Tuesday, July 14, in Abuja, FCT.

There are different stages of approvals that a medical or food product must pass through before final certification for general use by consumers.

Prof. Adeyeye said: “Safety is the first phase of testing that a product goes through during the approval process.

“It involves microbial content and toxicity testing, pesticides residue and toxicants evaluation.

“If the product meets the specifications, it can be approved as safe to use and get a listing status registration for two years.”

According to her, each stage of approval is made explicit for the consumers to discern from the labelling and warning assigned on the product by NAFDAC.

The NAFDAC Director-General stated: “The applicant is expected to go the next phase which is clinical efficacy testing, which is essentially doing a clinical trial on the product.

“That is why in the first phase, we put the disclaimer on the label that NAFDAC has not evaluated the product for the claim the client made.

“It is at this second stage when the clinical trial is done that the claim can be proved or refuted.”

Regarding the recent claim by a drug producer that it has got approval from NAFDAC, Adeyeye declared that “NAFDAC approved the Paxherbal medicine for listing because it passed safety test.

“But that does not mean it can do what the maker says it does – immune booster.”