The President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof Ahmed Yakasai, has picked holes in the claim by the Senate that about 42 antimalarial drugs banned by the European Union (EU) were still in circulation at the Nigerian market.
Speaking with journalists Sunday at the weekend, the PSN president said the drugs being listed as banned were mono therapy drugs, which Nigeria no more uses.
Yakasai who expressed disappointment at the claim by the Red Chamber said the alarm raised was uncalled, as the issue had become stale after it had been addressed in the past
The Nigerian Senate had on July 20, 2017 raised the alarm over antimalarial drugs that have been banned in Europe but were still sold in hospitals and pharmacies in Nigeria.
The Senate also mandated its committee on Health, both Secondary and Tertiary, chaired by Senator Olarewaju Tejuoso, to urgently carry out an investigation into the matter and report back.
But responding to the claim, the PSN president said the World Health Organization’s guideline had okayed a combination therapy for treatment of malarial, which Nigeria had already adopted.
“The list of antimalarial medicines circulated on social media by Itodje Okiemute Godstime on March 21, 2017 at www.gt9ja.com are oral monotherapies which are not the recommended medicines for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Nigeria”, he noted.
Yakasai further stated that the claim that the drugs will lead to liver or kidney failure does not hold water, as it has no scientific backing. “The claim of Itodje Okiemute Godstime in respect of poisoning and kidney failure have no clinical or scientific backing”, he said.
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