The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has joined a major international research consortium backed by a £3.7 million grant from the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council (MRC) to develop cutting-edge technologies aimed at detecting substandard, degraded and falsified vaccines.
The three-year initiative, announced in a statement on Monday, is led by the Medicine Quality Research Group at the University of Oxford and brings together NAFDAC, Obafemi Awolowo University, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the University of East London, the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Thailand, and other international partners.
The project is expected to significantly strengthen Nigeria’s vaccine quality surveillance system and bolster efforts to protect millions of Nigerians from unsafe and counterfeit vaccines.
According to NAFDAC, the initiative builds on the Vaccine Identity Evaluation (VIE) Consortium, which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to tackle the growing global threat posed by substandard and falsified vaccines.
In Nigeria, the programme will enhance post-marketing surveillance of vaccines through the evaluation of innovative screening devices, routine vaccine lot-release laboratory testing and health economics studies to determine the most cost-effective methods of ensuring vaccine quality.
The agency said the grant expands earlier research carried out by the University of Oxford’s Medicine Quality Research Group in collaboration with its Departments of Biochemistry and Chemistry, the STFC Central Laser Facility and the UKRI Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, where advanced scientific technologies were adapted to detect degraded and counterfeit vaccines within supply chains.
Under the new phase of the project, the technologies will be further refined before being tested under near real-world conditions in Nigeria.
NAFDAC said it would play a pivotal role as Nigeria’s National Regulatory Authority by implementing the project, strengthening vaccine quality surveillance and supporting evidence-based regulatory decisions.
The agency noted that the initiative aligns with its mandate to safeguard public health through science-driven regulation, innovation and international collaboration while reinforcing public confidence in the safety, quality and effectiveness of vaccines.
According to the agency, the project will generate critical evidence to support the deployment of screening technologies capable of verifying vaccine quality throughout the supply chain, a move expected to strengthen immunisation programmes and improve public trust in vaccines.
The statement was signed by the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who described the collaboration as another milestone in the agency’s efforts to ensure that only safe, high-quality and effective vaccines reach Nigerians.
