Fidson Healthcare Plc has signed a partnership agreement with Jiangsu Aidea Pharma, Nanjing PharmaBlock, and the China-Africa Development Fund in Beijing, China.
The signing ceremony was during a visit by a team from Nigeria led by Fidelis Ayebae, founder and managing director of Fidson Healthcare Plc, Babatunde Ipaye, and Oshoke Ayebae.
According to the company, collaboration with the four Chinese firms is an agreement to leverage strengths to establish a new joint venture pharmaceutical plant project in Nigeria.
“This new project is poised to promote Africa’s self-reliance in healthcare delivery, especially in tackling HIV. All parties agreed to share information and resources, jointly explore investment opportunities in the pharmaceutical markets of West African countries, and implement investment cooperation at the project level,” it said.
The partnership between Fidson and the Chinese firms is a sterling example of international cooperation aimed at tackling pressing medical challenges.
“The upcoming manufacturing facility will become a hub for pharmaceutical excellence, leveraging the Lekki Free Trade Zone’s strategic location and comprehensive infrastructure to foster economic growth and healthcare improvement,” the company added.
Heliang Fu, chairman of Jiangsu Aidea Pharma, visited Nigeria earlier in the year. He toured the Lekki Free Trade Zone, which is the chosen site for the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that is set to revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria and the wider African continent
“This collaboration marks an important step for Chinese Pharma players in their commitment to global medical cooperation. By integrating our expertise and experience in the field of innovative drugs, we are confident in bringing greater well-being to African patients,” he said.
Aidea Pharma was established in 2009 and listed on the SSE STAR Market (Stock Code: 688488. SH) in 2020. It focuses on developing anti-HIV drugs as its core business while leveraging its competitive advantage in the human urine-derived proteins sector.
Ayebae expressed his optimism about the partnership saying “We eagerly look forward to this collaboration and believe that the complementary strengths of all parties will inject new vitality into the Healthcare delivery sector in Africa, particularly addressing the medical needs of over 1.9 million HIV-infected individuals in Nigeria, a focus of Aidea Pharma.”
He added that the project is coming at no better time as the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in Nigeria under the leadership of Temitope Ilori is championing the government’s drive to provide necessary support and the enabling environment for pharmaceutical companies to start local production of Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).
PharmaBlock is a global one-stop CRDMO (Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organisation) provider offering drug screening, development, and manufacturing solutions to partners through R&D and production platforms.
However, The China-Africa Development Fund is one of the important measures approved by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006. It is also China’s first equity fund focusing on investment in Africa officially launched in June 2007 and has a capital amount of $10 billion.
