The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has ordered the immediate withdrawal, suspension, or cancellation of 101 pharmaceutical products across the country.
The directive was announced in a statement released on the agency’s official X handle on Tuesday, where it emphasized that the affected medicines and health products are no longer authorised for manufacture, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale, or use within Nigeria.
According to NAFDAC, the comprehensive list of discontinued products has been published on its official website for public access.
Among the items are widely used drugs such as Abacavir and Amlodipine, alongside several classes of medicines including antimalarials (notably artemether/lumefantrine combinations), cardiovascular drugs like valsartan-based formulations, insulin and growth hormone injectables such as Norditropin, diabetes treatments like Januvia/Janumet, as well as inhalers and eye drops.
The agency explained that the sanctions were issued for various reasons, ranging from licensing problems to voluntary withdrawal by market authorisation holders. It further clarified the distinctions in its regulatory actions:
A certificate of registration is withdrawn when the product’s registration is discontinued at the request of its market authorisation holder.
A certificate is suspended if the conditions under which registration was granted are no longer met.
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A certificate is cancelled when the license issued by NAFDAC is formally revoked.
The development comes amid rising international alarm over the circulation of counterfeit and substandard drugs.
A 2023 World Health Organisation report indicated that as much as 10 per cent of medicines in low- and middle-income countries are falsified or of poor quality, highlighting the urgent need for stricter regulatory oversight.
NAFDAC urged healthcare providers, distributors, and the general public to check the list of affected products and ensure compliance with the directive.