The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control will authorize an emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccines once they arrive in Nigeria, according to PUNCH.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof Moji Adeyeye, disclosed this during an interview with PUNCH on Friday.
Adeyeye said NAFDAC would be doing something called, “Emergency Use Authorisation.”
She said the agency had been in contact with Pfizer since May and had already received a preliminary report which would guide NAFDAC’s decision.
The NAFDAC boss said, “Any vaccine that will be used in Nigeria must go through NAFDAC. It will be an accelerated approval because we will use what is called reliance. Reliance mechanism means that if a strong regulatory agency like the FDA or European Medicine Agency has approved it (the vaccine), we will go through their approval.
“For example, we are going through the EMA approval of Pfizer now. We are doing this in readiness of when they (Pfizer) will submit their own application. So, we have started doing our own work before they approve the application. We are already in touch with them.
“NAFDAC is doing EUA which means Emergency Use Authorisation. So, it is not as if they are coming to register a product but it will still need approval. It is not as if immediately the vaccines are brought, we would tell people to start using it the next day. We will do a desk review,” she said.
