NAFDAC laboratory gets USAID, USP accreditation

The United States Agency for Inter­national Develop­ment (USAID) and the United States Phar­macopeial Convention (USP) yesterday, certified the Central Drug Control Laboratory of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Con­trol (NAFDAC) with ISO/ IEC 17025:2005.

Vice President of Global Health Impact Programmes, USP, Patrick Lukulay, praised NAFDAC for gener­ating results that are not only credible but also not eas­ily ignored and so, had mea­sured up to the international standard.
He said: “NAFDAC labo­ratory had set up quality product to ensure that Ni­geria is up to standard and of equal quality around the world.”
He advised that local prod­ucts should be encouraged.
Director General, NAF­DAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, said the agency had minimal human interference in the regula­tory testing systems and had encouraged as well as sup­ported the accreditation pro­grammes of its laboratories.
The Central Drug Control Laboratory, one of the seven laboratories in the Labora­tory Services Directorate of NAFDAC, which com­menced operation in 1978 under the Department of Food and Drug Administra­tion of Nigeria, Federal Min­istry of Health, was renamed in 2009 as Central Drug Con­trol Laboratory (CDCL) with the vaccine unit established as an independent laboratory.
Orhii said the CDCL is re­sponsible for testing all me­dicinal products submitted for regulatory actions and investigation.
According to him the lab­oratory tests various medici­nal dosage forms like tablets, capsules, powder and liquid.