The Federal Ministry of Health has recalled 2, 405,724million bottles of Codeine containing cough syrup, following a recent audit trail of the substance carried out by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, made this known recently, in Abuja, while receiving the final report of the Stakeholders Committee set up by the ministry to address the wide spread abuse of cough mixtures containing codein.
Professor Adewole said that the audit trail and subsequent recall of the substance was part of the recommendations submitted by the 22-man committee drafted from a broad spectrum of the health sector stakeholders, brought together to collaborate with relevant agencies as part of pharmacovigilance and renewed effort to actively monitor drug distribution channels and sanitise the system.
He recalled that the committee was a follow up to the temporary ban of Codeine production and distribution as well as the further directive for NAFDAC to convene a committee of stakeholders to chart the way forward.
The committee has the following as members: Director General, NAFDAC, Professor Christianah M. Adeyeye(Chairman); Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Muhammad Mustapha Abdullah; Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria(PCN), Elijah Mohamed; Director, Food and Drugs Services(FMOH), Mr. Moshood Lawal; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria(PSN),
Ahmed I. Yakasai; Executive Secretary, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), Dr. Okey Akpa amongst others.
The report involved 87 percent of the manufacturers (20 out of the 23) of the companies. All the recalled products are warehoused in the respective companies, the minister explained.
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