Health
Include TXA in delivery kits to reduce maternal deaths, WARDC urges govts
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By Francesca Hangeior
The Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre has called on governments and key stakeholders to urgently integrate tranexamic acid into standard delivery kits across Nigeria to reduce maternal deaths caused by post-partum haemorrhage.
According to the World Health Organisation, PPH, also known as severe bleeding after childbirth, is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide.
It noted that every year, about 14 million women experience PPH, resulting in about 70,000 deaths globally.
To reduce the incidence of PPH, the WHO in 2017 recommended the early use of intravenous TXA within three hours of birth, alongside standard care, for women diagnosed with PPH after vaginal or caesarean delivery.
WARDC says PPH remains one of the leading causes of maternal death in Nigeria, contributing significantly (almost 25 per cent) to the country’s unacceptably high maternal mortality ratio.
Speaking at a press briefing marking the closing ceremony of the rights group’s 12-month-long community-focused intervention, the Founding Director of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said awareness was insufficient without interventions to ensure lifesaving medicines are readily available where women give birth.
She stressed that tranexamic acid, commonly known as TXA, has been proven to reduce bleeding after childbirth significantly, but remains largely inaccessible to many women due to cost and policy gaps.
“While awareness is critical, awareness alone cannot save lives. For tranexamic acid to truly reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria, system-level action is urgently required,” she said.
In outlining specific demands, Akiyode-Afolabi urged the governments to prioritise public funding and access to the drug across the three healthcare levels.
She said, “Federal and state governments to subsidise and include tranexamic acid in all standard delivery kits in public health facilities, and ensure TXA is consistently available at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care.”
She also called for stronger policy integration and capacity building within the health system to support effective use of the drug.
“Health authorities and regulators to integrate TXA fully into maternal health protocols, emergency obstetric guidelines, and training curricula for healthcare workers. There’s an urgent need to strengthen supply chains so that cost, stock-outs, and access barriers do not continue to cost women their lives,” Akiyode-Afolabi said.
According to her, development partners and donor agencies also have a critical role to play in scaling interventions that have shown measurable impact at the community level.
She said, “Development partners and donors to support scale-up of successful community engagement models like Project TRANSFORM, and invest in sustained advocacy, training, and monitoring to ensure long-term impact.”
She noted that progress in reducing maternal deaths depends on collective responsibility and evidence-driven action.
“When communities are informed, stakeholders collaborate, and evidence guides advocacy, change is possible,” she said.
However, she cautioned that such progress would remain limited without strong political backing and sustained investment.
The WARDC founding director noted, “However, for that change to translate into lives saved, it must be matched with political will, adequate financing, and institutional commitment.”
Akiyode-Afolabi described maternal deaths from post-partum bleeding as unacceptable, given the availability of effective and affordable medical solutions.
“No woman should die while giving birth. No family should lose a mother, daughter, spouse, or sister to a preventable cause.”
She added that denying women access to proven medicines undermines efforts to improve maternal health outcomes nationwide.
“And no proven, affordable medicine like TXA should remain out of reach,” she said.
Akiyode-Afolabi explained that WARDC, with technical and research support from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, had, in the last 10 months, embarked on a community-focused intervention aimed at reducing maternal mortality in Nigeria through improved awareness, access, and advocacy for tranexamic acid.
“Over 20,000 people were reached through physical, community-based engagements, including town hall meetings, grassroots dialogues, engagements at primary healthcare centres, faith-based spaces, and market outreaches,” she said.
Through these efforts, she said Project TRANSFORM contributed to increased awareness, improved community knowledge, and stronger public discourse around preventable maternal deaths and evidence-based solutions.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has blacklisted Onifam Laboratories Limited, its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, all members of its board of directors, and every affiliated or associated individual and entity found to have participated in regulatory violations, following what it described as extensive investigations into the company’s operations.
The sanction, which takes immediate effect, effectively excludes the company and all affected individuals from participating in any pharmaceutical business regulated by NAFDAC pending further directive from the agency.
In a statement signed on Monday by its Director-General/CEO, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the agency said its investigations established that Onifam Laboratories engaged in regulatory misrepresentation, misuse of NAFDAC approvals and certificates, improper registration and transfer of pharmaceutical products, as well as activities that deliberately circumvented established regulatory procedures.
According to NAFDAC, the alleged infractions compromise product traceability, weaken accountability within the pharmaceutical supply chain and expose the public to significant health risks.
The agency said the company’s actions violate the provisions of the NAFDAC Act, the Food, Drug and Related Products (Registration, etc.) Act, the Drug and Related Products Registration Regulations 2021 and other applicable regulatory guidelines governing pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.
As part of the blacklist, Onifam Laboratories and all affected persons are prohibited from participating, either directly or indirectly, in any pharmaceutical business regulated by NAFDAC.
The prohibition extends to applying for or benefiting from any NAFDAC registration, licence, permit, certificate or approval.
It also bars them from operating as manufacturers, importers, distributors, marketing authorisation holders, agents, representatives, consultants, promoters or sponsors of any product regulated by the agency.
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), whose agency announced the immediate blacklisting of Onifam Laboratories Ltd, its Managing Director, directors and affiliated entities over multiple regulatory violations/Credit: NAFDAC
The sweeping sanctions equally apply to affiliated companies and associated entities found to have been involved in the regulatory violations.
NAFDAC stated that the blacklist would remain in force until otherwise directed by its management.
The agency further warned that it reserves the right to initiate additional regulatory, administrative, enforcement and legal actions where necessary to protect public health and preserve the integrity of Nigeria’s medicines regulatory system.
It stressed that the action reflects its determination to ensure strict compliance with pharmaceutical regulations and deter practices capable of undermining the safety and quality of medicines available to Nigerians.
Reaffirming its commitment to safeguarding public health, NAFDAC urged all stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector to comply fully with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.
The agency maintained that only safe, quality-assured and properly regulated medicines should be manufactured, imported, distributed and sold in Nigeria, warning that any attempt to bypass regulatory procedures would attract decisive sanctions.
The blacklist of Onifam Laboratories marks one of the agency’s strongest recent enforcement actions and underscores its resolve to strengthen regulatory oversight, improve accountability within the pharmaceutical industry and sustain public confidence in Nigeria’s medicines regulatory framework.
Poor funding could undermine the ability of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC) to deliver on its mandate, the Senate has said, insisting that the N2.9 billion monthly allocation being released to the commission is only “a drop in the ocean” compared to its N140 billion budget allocation for 2026.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the North Central Development Commission, Titus Zam, sounded the warning while briefing journalists after an interactive session between the committee and the commission’s management at the National Assembly on Tuesday.
According to him, the current monthly release would amount to less than half of the commission’s approved budget if maintained throughout the year, expressing optimism that the federal government would increase funding as the commission becomes fully operational.
“If you give someone that has a budget of N140 billion, N2.9 billion per month, in 12 months, it won’t be up to half of the entire budgetary sum,” Zam said.
“I suppose that is just a temporary package. When the commission finally comes to fruition, much more funds will be released. So we thank Mr President and the Executive for dropping something now, but we look forward to more.”
The lawmaker, however, assured that the Senate Committee would ensure the prudent utilisation of the funds already released by providing effective oversight and guiding the commission on areas of priority.
He urged the commission to focus its interventions on agriculture, security and rural development, stressing that the North Central region is largely agrarian and continues to face serious security challenges.
“North Central is mostly an agricultural land. We have arable land, we have good rainfall and vegetation. There is policy for agriculture. We need the department of NCDC to take agriculture very seriously.
“We also have a challenge of insecurity. The commission is advised to support the security forces and state governments to complement their efforts towards mitigating the tide of insecurity within the region.
“We also ask them to take rural development very seriously because we are also rural in nature,” Zam said.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) says Nigeria recorded an increase in confirmed Lassa fever cases during epidemiological week 26 of 2026, with 31 new infections reported, up from 22 the previous week.
The new confirmed cases were recorded in Bauchi, Ondo, Taraba and Benue states, according to the latest NCDC Lassa fever situation report released by the public health agency on Friday.
The report showed that 221 deaths have been recorded cumulatively in 2026, with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 24.0 per cent, higher than the 18.7 per cent reported in 2025.
It stated that 23 states had reported at least one confirmed Lassa fever case across 111 Local Government Areas, indicating the continued geographic spread of the disease nationwide in 2026.
According to the report, 85 per cent of all confirmed cases originated from Ondo, Bauchi, Taraba, Edo and Benue states, while the remaining 15 per cent were reported elsewhere.
The report said Ondo accounted for the highest proportion of confirmed cases at 30 per cent, followed by Bauchi with 26 per cent, Taraba with 14 per cent, Edo with nine per cent, and Benue.
It revealed that people aged between 21 and 30 years remained the most affected group, although confirmed cases ranged from one to 93 years, with a median age.
The report also showed that the male-to-female ratio among confirmed cases stood at 1:0.9, suggesting nearly equal infection rates between males and females across affected states.
Health authorities noted that both suspected and confirmed Lassa fever cases increased compared with the corresponding period in 2025, while one healthcare worker was infected during week 26.
The report added that the National Lassa Fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Incident Management System remains activated to coordinate surveillance, case management, risk communication and response activities nationwide.
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