The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it will no longer approve new registration for alcohol packaged in sachets.

The Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known on Tuesday in Ibadan at an interactive session with stakeholders in food and drugs manufacturing.

The NAFDAC boss said that alcohol packaged in sachets had greatly contributed to increasing drug and alcohol abuse in the society.

Adeyeye said that the agency would also phase out the use of pet bottles used in packaging of alcohol to address the increasing spate of abuse in the country.

She said, “The agency remains undaunted in its efforts to reduce the incidence of substandard and falsified products as well as the smuggling and abuse of various products”.

Adeyeye also said that in order to encourage local manufacture of herbal medicines, the agency was collaborating with traditional herbalists and researchers.

“The agency is keen on having herbal medicines widely accepted as safe, hence we will continue to test them for clinical efficacy before giving full registration status”.

“We are also on a mission to turn herbal medicines into products that can be commercialised through collaboration between traditional herbalists and academic researchers”.

“In encouraging local manufacturing of medicines that are usually imported, the agency will enforce a five- year importation permit given to manufacturers with a mandate that they produce five years plan geared towards local manufacturing upon renewal”.

“In addition, the agency will also give five-year exclusive rights to companies to market their products without competition if they develop food and drugs that show demonstrable research and development innovation. This development will be effective before the end of the first quarter of the year,” she said. (NAN)