The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof. Moji Adeyeye, has denied the claims of Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories on the agency’s registration and listing of its new drug for the treatment of COVID-19.
Adeyeye, in a disclaimer sent to Pharmanewsonline stated: “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) wish to inform the public that PAX CVD PLUS has not been registered nor listed for treatment of COVD-19, neither have we registered nor listed any other remedy for COVID-19”.
She explained further saying: ”The attention of the Agency has been drawn to an advertorial from Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories titled “AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY PAX HERBALS ON THE TREATMENT OF COVID-19”. The advertorial claims that Pax herbal has developed a new drug called PAX CVD PLUS for the treatment of COVID-19 and is working with NAFDAC to speed up approval for use of the drugs.
“The same advertorial claimed that the Director-General of NAFDAC has appointed experts to work with PAX HERBAL on what the company has described as a special project”, she stressed.
The NAFDAC boss maintained that at no time did she nor anyone in the Agency appoint any expert or staff to work with PAX HERBAL on any project, noting that the organisation wrote a letter to the agency to partner them on their research on a new drug, but the agency turned down the offer being a regulator.
Her words: “The company wrote a letter to NAFDAC informing the Agency about their development of an antiviral plant based drug with potential to treat COVID-19 and an invitation to join their research team. The Agency politely declined since as a regulator of clinical trials, participation would be a conflict of interest. However, we encouraged them to carry out clinical trials which should be under strict supervision of the Agency to establish efficacy of their product. However, the clinical trial has not taken place”.
Adeyeye averred that it is unfortunate that Pax Herbals has made claims that are not backed up by facts, noting the disclaimer intended to correct the erroneous impression created by the advertorial.
Earlier on in the week, the Agency had warned members of the public to desist from reports on social media claiming to have cure in form of vaccines or drugs for COVID-19.
It stated that “The Agency has not granted any approval to any products for use as a cure or vaccine against COVID 19”.
NAFDAC however urged the public
to comply with measures issued by the NCDC to prevent the spread of COVID 19, which include use of face coverings/ masks in addition to social distancing, washing of hands and use of alcohol based sanitizers.
