NAFDAC, OAU join £3.7 million Oxford-led project to detect fake vaccines

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) have joined a £3.7 million international research initiative led by the University of Oxford to develop advanced technologies for detecting substandard, degraded, and falsified vaccines across supply chains.

The three-year project was announced by NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who disclosed that the initiative was funded under the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme.

Other partners in the consortium include the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the University of East London, the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand, and several international research institutions.

What they are saying

The project builds on the Vaccine Identity Evaluation (VIE) Consortium, which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the growing global threat of substandard and falsified vaccines.

According to NAFDAC, the initiative will strengthen vaccine quality surveillance in Nigeria through post-marketing monitoring, testing of innovative vaccine screening technologies, routine laboratory evaluation of vaccine batches, and economic studies to determine the most cost-effective methods for verifying vaccine quality.

• “As Nigeria’s National Regulatory Authority, NAFDAC will play a central role in implementing the project by strengthening vaccine quality surveillance and supporting evidence-based regulatory decision-making,” NAFDAC said in the statement.

The agency said the grant also extends earlier research carried out by the University of Oxford’s Medicine Quality Research Group and its scientific partners, where advanced laboratory techniques were adapted to identify degraded and falsified vaccines within supply chains.

The new phase will further refine the technologies and test their effectiveness under conditions that closely reflect real-world vaccine distribution in Nigeria.

More insights

The project comes amid growing concerns over the impact of substandard and falsified medical products on public health and national economies.

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least one in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified, while countries lose an estimated $30.5 billion annually to poor-quality medical products. The WHO also notes that fake medicines are frequently sold through online platforms and informal markets.

The economic implications are particularly significant for Nigeria, where the federal government spends about $150 million annually on vaccine procurement while expanding malaria vaccination programmes to more states, according to Dr. Muyi Aina, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).

By improving vaccine quality verification across the supply chain, the research is expected to support immunisation programmes, reduce the circulation of falsified vaccines, and strengthen public confidence in vaccination.

What you should know

NAFDAC is Nigeria’s national regulatory authority responsible for ensuring the safety, quality, efficacy, and availability of food, medicines, vaccines, medical devices, cosmetics, and other regulated products.

• In recent months, the agency has intensified enforcement against counterfeit and substandard medical products.
• In February, NAFDAC confiscated more than 10 million doses of fake malaria medicines and cosmetic products valued at about N3 billion at the Trade Fair Market in Lagos.
• In March, the agency destroyed fake and unwholesome drugs worth over N939 million in Awka, Anambra State.

NAFDAC has also issued a public alert warning healthcare providers and patients about falsified versions of Dostinex 0.5mg tablets circulating in Nigeria, underscoring its broader efforts to combat counterfeit medicines and strengthen public health protection.