The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved the Nigeria National Pharmacovigilance Policy aimed at monitoring and managing the adverse effects of drugs.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, made this known while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo.
He said the policy was initially approved by the National Council on Health at its 55th meeting in July in Abuja.
“Today, the Federal Executive Council approved the Nigeria National Pharmacovigilance Policy. The Nigeria National Pharmacovigilance policy is the policy to ensure that adverse drug reactions are properly managed in this country.
“The policy had actually been approved by the National Council on Health at its 55th meeting held in Abuja in July this year.’’
The normal process is for the National Council on Health, the highest policy formulation body in the health sector, to approve a policy, and send it to the Federal Executive Council for final approval.
The National Council on Health is made up of the federal and the state governments.
Chukwu said the policy would be formally Implemented by the National Pharmacovigilance centre, which is located within the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control.
He expressed the hope that the policy would go a long way in helping the country to begin to address issues that were often ignored.
“We want to have an organised way of monitoring these reactions so much that Nigerians will be sure that their health is well taking care of.”
The minister said that the professional bodies that regulate drugs had been put in place for immediate implementation of the policy.
He also said that the Federal Government might ban the sale of Rophynol, a drug that was administered on late Cynthia Osokogu, a student of Nasarawa State University, who was raped and murdered in Lagos this year.
“I have directed the appropriate body, the Nigerian Essential Drugs List and National Drug Formulary Committee, which is established by a separate law, to immediately look into whether we should ban the drug or not.
?“In some countries, that drug has been banned and it was also for similar reason that those countries decided to ban the drug.”
Also addressing the correspondents, the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi, said the council approved N671 million for consultancy services for the engineering design of the extension of the East-West road.
She said the extension work would be from Oron in Akwa Ibom to Calabar in Cross River.
?
?