The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has given an insight into the reason why no locally produced herbal medicine has yet been approved by the Agency in the treatment of COVID – 19 in Nigeria.
In a statement by NAFDAC resident media consultant, Sayo Akintola in Abuja, Prof. Adeyeye said that no single drug has been found yet to cure COVID -19, noting that medicinal products available now can only help ease symptoms and up the odds of survival.
She, however, warned Nigerians against excessive consumption of onions and garlic with a view to curing COVID – 19, saying: If you eat too much of them, your breath will be smelling and nobody will want to stay by you’’.
She admitted that onions or garlic or any of the natural fruits have antioxidant and nutrients that can help people feel better. “They work on our cells to keep people healthier, but not to cure COVID – 19. They help our body to function better. There is no cure for COVID -19 yet’’, she said.
She added that they may boost the immunity and the person may not be easily susceptible to infection, adding “even with that you still have to protect yourself. If you eat garlic and onion and you don’t use mask you will get COVID -19. If you are in a very bad environment; if you don’t wash your hands, you will get COVID -19. So, everything has to be put together’’.
She said that the University of Jos said that they manufactured a herbal medicine, that could cure COVID – 19 and NAFDAC did a letter to warn them that they cannot claim something unless it has gone through is listing process. “They were trying to sell it to their staff. That is violation of our own regulatory policies. Nobody should say that this one can cure this or that without going through NAFDAC listing process, ’’ Adeyeye said.
According to her, the research into herbal medicine by the academia is normal. She however, quickly added that “It is now for the academia to also recognize the national regulatory authority established to safeguard the safety of the Nigerian populace by ensuring that the product that they are working on has to go through NAFDAC if they want to make it available for human consumption’’.
The NAFDAC DG insists that the Agency has to approve the clinical trial protocol, stressing that “If they don’t go through NHREC, if it is a new product; and if they don’t go through NAFDAC before they start doing their clinical trial, that is violation of regulatory procedures.’’
She maintained that without clinical trial authorized by NAFDAC, nobody can claim that a product can cure COVID – 19. “Of course, some people might have been using it and they got better, but without being approved scientifically and documented, we may not be able to guarantee that it’s safe for human consumption,’’ she said.
She added that since the outbreak of the pandemic there have been a lot of assertions that there were herbal medicines that could be used to treat symptoms of COVID -19. “There is no single medicine that has been identified today to cure COVID -19. But there are herbal medicines that could alleviate symptoms of COVID -19.However, NAFDAC has not granted registration approval for any medicine for that,” she said.
To do official clinical trial, she said “you must write a protocol, you must pass it through the National Health Research Ethical Committee, NHREC you have to pass it through NAFDAC. We have not received any like that.’’
Nonetheless, she said the Agency has approved some herbal medicines that they claim can alleviate some of the symptoms of COVID -19, stressing that some of them are immune boosters that can increase the immune level of people.
She further disclosed that University of Jos has been given approval for its product, Silymarin to commence clinical trial. She however, disclosed that this is yet to commence.
The NAFDAC DG, further disclosed that many herbal products have been submitted for Federal Government grants because most of the herbal practitioners lack the required wherewithal to do clinical trial. “As we speak many of these herbal products are being subjected to review by different agencies of government in the country. In terms of going through clinical trial official protocols, none has come through yet. That doesn’t mean they will not because the process is still on’, she said.