📌 Host: Paul Adepoju
👤 Guest: Prof. Moji Adeyeye – Director-General of NAFDAC (Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration & Control)
In this episode of Paul Talks Science, I sit down with Prof. Moji Adeyeye to explore her remarkable journey from practicing pharmacist to academic, regulator and advocate, and how she’s helping transform Nigeria’s medicines landscape — especially for children.
We dive into :
- Her reflections on the past challenges of paediatric malaria treatments and why “children are not just small adults” in drug development.
- The technical, environmental and regulatory hurdles of developing medicines that children will actually accept — and that can survive real-world conditions in low-resource settings.
- How NAFDAC is leveraging cutting-edge technology like GS1 track-&-trace and advanced detection devices to fight fake and substandard medicines in Nigeria’s open drug markets.
- The trade-offs regulators face between speeding access (as seen during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout) and maintaining trust, safety and thorough review.
- Her faith-inspired work supporting children orphaned by HIV/AIDS and the broader intersection of medicine, ethics and public health.
- Her vision for Nigeria: “Made in Nigeria, sold all over the world” — with quality, safety and efficacy at its core.
📖 Further reading: I recently wrote a deeper piece for Devex titled “Can Africa’s drug regulators be both fast and trusted?” which draws on this conversation and broader regulatory trends across the continent. Check it out: https://www.devex.com/news/can-africa-s-drug-regulators-be-both-fast-and-trusted-111147
🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe and hit the notification bell so you won’t miss future episodes where we bring together science, policy, innovation and human stories.
👇 Share your thoughts in the comments: What was the most surprising insight for you from this conversation? What do you think it will take to build regulatory systems in Africa that are both fast and trusted?