NAFDAC Retains Accreditation for Central Drug Control Laboratory

Martins Ifijeh

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFADC) has retained her status on the accreditation of the Yaba Central Drug Laboratory in Lagos; this was after the successful surveillance assessment of the laboratory by ANAB ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board of USA.

They concluded that the management system of the laboratory conforms to the quality management requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 in the following scope; – HPLC, Dissolution, UV/VIS Spectroscopy, PH, Loss on Drying (LOD), Water determination by Karl Fischer and Uniformity of Dosage Units (UDU).

The Ag Director General of NAFDAC, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, assured that the laboratory will continue to offer quality analytical testing services to all her customers to produce reliable and accurate analytical test results that meet international quality standards (ISO/IEC 17025:2005).

NAFDAC, according to her, appreciates the technical and financial support of USP-PQM and USAID in strengthening the quality systems of the laboratory and maintaining ISO/IEC 17025:2005 laboratory accreditation.

The Ag DG maintained that the agency will continue to partner with other development partners in implementing, building and sustaining the laboratory quality management system in Central Drug Control Laboratory and other NAFDAC laboratories.

She also appreciated the commitment and hard work of all staff of the laboratory whose tireless effort and dedication to duty resulted in retaining the laboratory accreditation status.

In 2014, NAFDAC Central Drug Control Laboratory, which analyses about 80 per cent of medicines for use in Nigeria, in efforts towards WHO prequalification obtained the ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation.

Oni explained that for the first time in Africa, two NAFDAC laboratories (the Mycotoxin and the Pesticide Residue laboratories) were accredited by the American Association Laboratory Accreditation (AALA) with ISO 17025 accreditation will significantly boost international acceptance of Nigeria’s export of value-added food products and foreign exchange earnings. In addition two other laboratories namely Food Compliance and HPLC laboratories recently got ISO 17025 accreditation from the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation just as the earlier accredited ones received renewed accreditation.