TheCable

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it has not approved any herbal medicine for treatment of COVID-19.

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by Olusayo Akintola, NAFDAC spokesman.

The statement quoted Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general, as saying “no single drug has been found yet to cure COVID-19”.

She said any product without NAFDAC approval for the cure of COVID-19 is null and void, adding that anyone with a claim to the contrary is in violation of the protocol of national regulatory authorities.

Citing the herbal medicine developed by the University of Jos for treatment of COVID-19, she said the agency had warned the institution that it cannot claim to have found a cure for virus, unless the product has gone through NAFDAC’s listing process.

“They were trying to sell it to their staff. That is a violation of our own regulatory policies,” she said.

“Nobody should say that this one can cure this or that without going through NAFDAC listing process. The research into herbal medicine by the academia is normal.

“It is now for the academia to also recognise the national regulatory authority established to safeguard the safety of the Nigerian populace, by ensuring that the product that what they are working on has to go through NAFDAC.”

Adeyeye said although there are herbal medicines that could alleviate symptoms of COVID-19, NAFDAC has not granted approval for any medicine for treatment.

“NAFDAC approves such medicines for listing; it means that it’s been tested and was deemed safe to use. NAFDAC cannot say herbal medicine can treat COVID-19, until clinical trial is done,” she said.

“Right now, there is no single herbal medicine that has gone through full clinical trial the way clinical trial is supposed to be done.”

She said to do an official clinical trial, one must develop a protocol, which must pass through the National Health Research Ethical Committee (NHREC), after which it will go through NAFDAC.