By Vincent Ujumadu

AWKA- THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, zonal laboratory at Agulu, Anambra State, has received the International Organization for Standardization, ISO, accreditation certificate from the United States Pharmacopeia Convention, USP, making it the first  laboratory of its type in the country to obtain the certificate.

With the development, the Agulu NAFDAC laboratory can henceforth undertake the testing of all classes of pharmaceutical products and raw materials in accordance with internationally validated and approved compendia, thereby giving acceptance to the test results on the quality status of analyzed regulated products.

Anambra State deputy governor, Dr. Nkem Okeke (left) with the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole during the presentation of USP certificate to NAFDAC at Agulu, Anambra State.

The acting Director General of NAFDAC, Mrs. Yetunde Oni received the certificate on behalf of the organization in the presence of the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Nkem Okeke, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole and top officials of NAFDAC and the Federal Ministry of Health.

The NAFDAC DG explained during the handover ceremony at Agulu that seven other laboratories in the country, including the NAFDAC area laboratory in Kaduna, were undergoing the process of accreditation, while the Central Drug Laboratory at Yaba, Lagos was undergoing World Health Organization’s, WHO, pre-qualification exercise.

Essentially, the Agulu laboratory has been empowered to undertake multiple pharmaceutical testing methods for high performance liquid chromatography, ultra –violet/visible spectrophotometer, dissolution testing, uniformity of dosage, pH, loss on drying and Karl Fischer for water determination.

According to Oni, what this meant was that the Agulu NAFDAC laboratory had become technically competent and internationally recognized to produce valid and accurate results, adding that the expectation was that in future, NAFDAC would establish laboratories in all states of the federation to ease the process of testing across the country.