NAFDAC DG Solicits International Partners’ Support for Vaccine Manufacturing in Nigeria

…Says Absence of Vaccine Manufacturing Delaying NAFDAC’s Attainment of WHO Maturity Level 4 for Vaccine Lot Release

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has solicited the support of international partners for the establishment of vaccine manufacturing facilities in Nigeria.

The NAFDAC DG made the call at the 8th Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo, jointly organised in Lagos by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) and PGE Expo PVT Limited.

Adeyeye acknowledged the continued support of international partners in NAFDAC’s trajectory towards attaining Maturity Level 3, stressing that their contributions would be immensely appreciated in establishing fill-and-finish modular vaccine manufacturing facilities in Nigeria.

According to her, NAFDAC has nine functions and requirements to meet to become fully benchmarked for medicines and vaccines, noting that the agency had been benchmarked in eight of the nine areas, with the outstanding requirement being Lot Release for vaccines.

“We want to call on our international partners that have been of tremendous help. Without them, we wouldn’t have been here. I want to challenge them to contribute to fill-and-finish modular vaccine manufacturing so that we can get our Vaccine Lot Release,” she said.

She added that Nigeria has almost everything required to attain Maturity Level 4, apart from local vaccine manufacturing capacity.

“To get Lot Release — Maturity Level 4 — we have figured it out in a way. We have estimated it. It’s not going to cost too much. We will share that with you because we can not afford to go back to where we used to be,” Adeyeye said.

In a press statement issued by its media consultant, Sayo Akintola,the NAFDAC boss recalled that the agency used to manufacture vaccines, stressing that the country must return to vaccine manufacturing.

“It’s high time we went back to vaccine manufacturing,” she declared.

Adeyeye also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the Executive Order of 2024, which, she said, brought life to NAFDAC’s persistent advocacy for incentives for local pharmaceutical manufacturers who had been operating under difficult economic conditions over the years.

“I understand the stress our manufacturers are going through. Our manufacturers are patriots because they could have given up. I was championing incentives for the manufacturers until President Tinubu came on board with the Executive Order of 2024,” she said.

According to her, the efforts of NAFDAC and the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry had not received sufficient attention outside the regulatory and manufacturing sectors until the president introduced the executive order.

She maintained that the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare and the Minister of State for Health at the time also supported the need for incentives, noting that this contributed to the initiative aimed at unlocking the value chain.

“It has been a journey,” she said, explaining that NAFDAC began the process with a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Roadmap, under which NAFDAC inspectors conducted compliance audits of more than 165 companies across the country over an eight-month period.

She said the initiative was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed by the United States Pharmacopoeia.

“We started the journey of not just the industry making products but making quality products because this is intricately tied to the positive health outcomes of patients during treatment. There would not be treatment failure,” Adeyeye said.

She disclosed that between 2021 and 2025, NAFDAC’s data showed a 70 per cent reduction in the importation of products covered under the 5+5 policy and the Ceiling Initiative, attributing the development to the willingness of local manufacturers to rise to the challenge.

According to her, the manufacturers were prepared to ensure that the health of Nigerians remained a top priority while also improving their standing in the international market through the production of quality products.

Adeyeye noted that the achievements were also made possible by NAFDAC’s continuous improvement in the competence of its personnel, stressing that “you can not give what you don’t have.”

She added that the efforts had earned the agency recognition from international institutions.

“We became a member of the International Medical Device Regulators Forum in 2023. Our laboratory in Yaba became WHO-prequalified in September 2023,” she said.

The NAFDAC DG explained that the World Health Organisation (WHO) does not award Maturity Level 3 as a one-off achievement, noting that the organisation periodically re-benchmarks regulatory agencies to ensure that they remain strong, consistent and resilient.

She disclosed that NAFDAC became the first regulatory agency in sub-Saharan Africa to be successfully re-benchmarked by the WHO on its first attempt

“All this is because of our industry. It’s because of our citizens,” she said, adding that NAFDAC is one of 194 regulatory agencies across the world and that all agencies are judged against the same standards irrespective of the size or economic status of their countries.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of PMG-MAN, Mr Oluwatosin Jolayemi, said the expo remains the only platform for a complete pharmaceutical manufacturing exhibition in Central and West Africa.

He said the event brings together manufacturers, regulators, investors, development partners, and other critical stakeholders to showcase industry capabilities, forge partnerships, and shape the future of the pharmaceutical industry.

Jolayemi, who is also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Daily Need Limited, commended Prof. Adeyeye for her steadfastness in ensuring that the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry moves towards international best practices in quality and Good Manufacturing Practice compliance.

He noted that NAFDAC’s policies were beginning to change the pharmaceutical ecosystem, stressing that the gains achieved so far must be sustained.

He, however, called for an extension of the Presidential Executive Order for another two years when it expires in March 2027.

According to him, the journey towards medicine security and pharmaceutical sovereignty is not a short-term intervention but requires policy consistency, investment, capability development, and a predictable operating environment.

A total of 132 companies from the United States, China, Argentina, Egypt, India, Rwanda, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Indonesia and Nigeria, among other countries, participated in the two-day expo.