NHIA partners NAFDAC for affordable, quality medicines – DG

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has collaborated with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control, (NAFDAC) to ensure a sustainable access to affordable and acceptable quality medicines for citizens.

The Director General NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, stated this recently during a courtesy visit to NAFDAC in Abuja. He added that the aim of the collaboration is to have access to qualitative medicine at a reduced cost.

“The manufacturers have agreed to commence production of these 33 essential drugs which is the first phase and also negotiate the prices with them and they are ready based on the MoU we signed with them last week,” he stated.

Professor Sambo further stated that it will help local drugs manufacturing to grow and provide a large market for them to sell their drugs.

“The drugs will be branded with NHIA inscription for health insurance patient.

Professor Sambo said the agency will assure that the availability of the drugs is there and the drugs will be of high standard and quality working with NAFDAC.

Responding, the director general of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, said the manufacturing companies have also had their products registered by NAFDAC and this means that all the attributes of quality, safety and efficacy pertaining to these products have been duly assured by NAFDAC.

“Under the initiative, 12 pharmaceutical companies will be branding 33 products for the health insurance ecosystem in the first phase and NHIA has chosen seven states (Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Niger, Osun and Sokoto states) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the first phase of this initiative,” she stated.

Professor Adeyeye noted that the initiative is also geared towards strengthening local pharmaceutical manufacturers, which will ultimately guarantee medicine security. 

She said: “This will help to reduce the proliferation of substandard and falsified medical products, the categories of drugs involved will start from simple to complex, which will be used to address prevailing health conditions in Nigeria, such as malaria, upper respiratory tract infections, childhood illnesses and drugs being used by pregnant women.”

Professor Adeyeye further stated that the branding of NHIA medicines and other health products was introduced as a way to help eradicate out-of-stock syndrome, as well as ensure quality of its medicines.