The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) alongside the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency (AEPA) has on Wednesday destroyed 1,066,242 doses of expired Oxford-Astrazeneca Coronavirus vaccines. The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib made the announcement while addressing journalists at the Idu dumpsite in Abuja.
Mr. Shuaib said the vaccines were withdrawn from states in the country, adding that the government took the action as part of measures to safeguard the health and wellbeings of Nigerians against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These vaccines did not expire before we decided to withdraw them and today is an opportunity for Nigerians to have further faith in our vaccination programme,” The NPHCDA boss said.
“We had the option if we were to take the advice of some experts to try and use these vaccines even beyond the label expiry date, but working together with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), we took that decision to destroy these vaccines at the point that they got expired.”
Speaking, Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General, NAFDAC said the destruction of expired COVID-19 vaccines was part of the agency's mandate.
“What we are witnessing today is a continuous unfolding of the fact that the best is for all Nigerians because Nigerians deserve the best in terms of quality of medicines and vaccines,” she said.
She further noted that NPHCDA received the vaccines when it got into the country because the agency holds the marketing authorisation.
“They are the ones that received it because it is their primary job to immunize the country. However, we have been working night and day together.
“And what he said about the vaccines coming with short expiration dates pose a challenge to us as a country,” she said.
Nigeria is the latest African country to publicly destroy its expired vaccines, after Malawi which was the first country, destroying over 20,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines, followed by South Sudan with nearly 60,000 destroyed vaccines.
Other countries include Mauritania, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
