The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has slammed the University of Jos for promoting a drug believed to cure COVID-19 without getting approval from the agency.

NAFDAC said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja. The statement quoted Moji Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general, as saying that “no single drug has been found yet to cure COVID -19.”

Mrs Adeyeye also warned Nigerians against excessive consumption of onions and garlic with a view to curing COVID-19, saying, ‘’If you eat too much your breath will be smelling and nobody will want to stay by you.”

She warned Nigerian researchers and other herbal medicine practitioners to desist from parading unverified medicine for the virus, stating that any product without NAFDAC approval for the cure of COVID-19 is null and void.

“Everything has to be put together. The University of Jos said that there was herbal medicine, whether it is tea or whatever, that can cure COVID-19. They linked it with the treatment of COVID -19; they did the packaging.

‘’We did a letter to warn them that they cannot claim something unless it has gone through our listing process. They were trying to sell it to their staff. That is a violation of our own regulatory policies.

“Nobody should say that this one can cure this or that without going through NAFDAC listing process, the research into herbal medicine by the academia is normal.

‘’It is now for the academia to also recognise 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,” Mrs Adeyeye said.

She noted that the university ought to go through the national regulatory authority and pave the way for NAFDAC to declare it safe for consumption.

The NAFDAC boss insisted that the agency must approve the clinical trial protocol.

‘’If they don’t do that and go ahead to market and sell their product, such act would be a violation of regulatory procedures,” she stated.

(NAN)