Kaduna Central District Senator Shehu Sani has kicked against the closure of Emzor pharmaceutical company by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Newsclick reports Emzor and two other pharmaceutical companies were shutdowns by NAFDAC after being implicated in a BBC investigation on illegal manufacturing and distribution of codeine-containing syrup.
In a statement by NAFDAC, Peace Standard Pharmaceutical Limited, Bioraj Pharmaceutical Limited and Emzor were shut for apparent resistance to provide needed documents during the organisation’s inspection in Ilorin and Lagos on May 2.
“Earlier on April 30, 2018, a day before the BBC documentary was aired, having seen the preview, Mojisola Adeyeye, the director general, had a meeting with technical directors of NAFDAC. She outlined the steps to be taken to strengthen the weakness in the control of the manufacturing and distribution of codeine-containing medicines as demonstrated in the documentary.
“A team of nine NAFDAC officers and ten mobile police officers were sent to Ilorin on May 2, 2018, to carry out investigational inspection at the companies of the two different pharmaceutical companies that are licensed to manufacture codeine-containing syrup, and which were implicated in the BBC documentary
“The same investigational inspection by a different NAFDAC team took place on the same day and time as the Ilorin companies at the manufacturing facility of Emzor Pharmaceuticals Industry Limited, Ajao Estate, Lagos.
“The focus of the assignment was to access and monitor from records the utilization, sales and effective distribution of the codeine-containing cough syrups to the end users,” that statement read.
“The shutdown of Emzor and the two other pharmaceutical companies by NAFDAC is an overkill,” Sani said, stressing that “Issues of violations if actually true, can be penalized with proportionate sanctions”.
According to Sani, “Such reputable companies doing legitimate business and employing thousands of Nigerians must not be ruined”.
Meanwhile, Emzor, on Tuesday insisted that only one production site of its firm was shut, contrary to claims that the entire company was shut.
