Angela Onwuzoo
Stakeholders in the pharmaceutical sector, under the aegis of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, have decried the nation’s over- dependency on imported medicines despite local drug manufacturers having the capacity and facilities to meet the essential medicine needs of the people.
The stakeholders who spoke at the just concluded Fifth Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo in Lagos, asked the Federal Government to prioritise the growth of local pharmaceutical industry by putting a deliberate radical policy in place to avoid Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for fake medicines.
Based on the recently signed African Free Continental Area Agreement by African countries including Nigeria, the drug manufacturers proposed that the government should as a matter of urgency prioritise the local pharmaceutical industry from the perspective of medicine security and national sufficiency, stressing that it was the only guarantee to make the best out of the AfCTA protocols.
Chairman of PMG-MAN, Dr Fidelis Ayebae, in his keynote address, said it was worrisome as a country, “we are overly dependent on imported and donor aid to satisfy the essential medicine needs of our rapidly growing population, while our facilities are abysmally underutilised.”
According to Dr Ayebae, who is Managing Director, Fidson Healthcare PLC, it is most discouraging to see that those products which the industry has the capacity and competence to produce locally, were being imported into the Nigerian market.
Represented at the occasion by the immediate past President of the group, Dr Okey Akpa, the Fidson boss, said the ripple effect of the country’s continuous over-dependence on imported medicine could not be over emphasised.
He listed poverty, brain drain, pressure on the country’s foreign reserve as some of the ripple effects of such over-dependence on imported medicine, adding that the act also gives room for falsified, substandard and counterfeit medicine to be imported into the country.
Recommending the way forward, Dr Ayebae said: “If we are to attain self sufficiency and ensure medicine security, deliberate radical policy must be put in place. An enabling business environment must be created by government to promote, protect and grow the local pharmaceutical industry.
“We want an industry which contributes to nation building to the excess of N300 billion; an industry that pays taxes and other tariffs; an industry that employs directly and indirectly over three million Nigerians and also attracts Foreign Direct Investment and significantly contributes to national development.”
He also appealed to the Federal Government to establish a local pharmaceutical manufacturers’ expansion and export intervention fund of N300billion.
Responding to the plea of the stakeholders at the Phama Expo with the theme, ” Strategic collaboration for Medicine Security, Affordability and National Security”, Minister of State for Health, Dr Adeleke Mamora, assured them that the Federal Government would not allow other countries to turn Nigeria into a dumping ground for pharmaceutical products.
Also expressing concern over the country’s over-dependence on imported medicine and its inability to attain self-sufficiency in essential medicine, Mamora however, said Nigeria must make use of what it has and even reach out to herbal practitioners to ensure efficacy and safety of drugs made available to citizens.
“What I am seeing is the capacity we desire and the determination of our people to really address the issue of sufficiency of medicine.
“We are also talking about home grown, that is, looking at what we have on ground to get the best out of the system and that is very important.
“All we want to be sure of is the efficacy and safety of the drugs available to us. I have seen a lot of technology that will aid the attainment of this desired and desirable approach,” he said.
Also speaking, High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, Shri Abhay Thakur, said the country should draw lesson from India, in which its key to success has been affordable solutions in machinery, health, agriculture among others, while the country is set to become the world’s fifth largest manufacturing economy by the end of 2020.
He noted that Nigeria has the wherewithal to become a net supplier of pharmaceutical products for the Central and West African markets, if it must support domestic pharmaceutical production.
For Chairman, Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo, Prince Degun Agboade, the presidency should enforce the Executive Order 003 with institutionalised monitoring and evaluation mechanism as well as zero percent tariff for pharmaceutical raw and packaging materials and retention of 20 percent tariff on imported finished pharmaceutical products that local companies have capacity to produce.
