Nigeria depends significantly on imported drugs to take care of the health needs of its over 190 million people. Okey Akpa, managing director of SKG Pharma Limited, an indigenous pharmaceutical company has said this exposes Nigeria to avoidable national security risks.
Akpa said the Federal Government and other tiers of government need to adopt and implement the concept of Medicines Security which is a strategic document developed by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG -MAN).
The concept ensures that the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria is encouraged through policy and political will to produce adequate, quality and affordable drugs locally for the health needs of the Nigeria.
“Local production which now stands at 35percent is not a reflection of the skills and capacity of local industries but will need government intervention in several areas to boost the capacity of local pharmaceutical companies,” Akpa said in Lagos while receiving the President of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) Mansur Ahmed and his team in his office.
Medicine Security is based on the National Drug Policy 2005 as amended which stipulates among other things that 70 percent of the drugs consumed in the country should be produced locally while 30 percent is exported.
“The Federal Government should adopt a system of “smart protection” for the pharmaceutical industries which involves giving incentives in the areas where the indigenous drug manufacturers has acquired capacity and also prevent the dumping of sub-standard and fake foreign drugs in the country” Akpa said.
“I call on the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria to set up N300billion Pharmaceutical Expansion and Export Fund which will provide soft loans to upgrade, improve the factories and increase capacity among indigenous drug manufacturing companies,” he advised.
However, while responding, the president of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, acknowledged the challenges facing manufacturers and the difficult environment they operate noting that the association is engaging the government to ensure that there is support along the pharmaceutical value chain.
Ahmed said with the coming of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement which Nigeria is yet to sign, the pharmaceutical industry will be impacted greatly either positively or negatively and called on the industry to upgrade in terms of technology and capacity to be able to compete with pharmaceutical companies from other African countries.
“MAN is working with the Raw Materials Research and Development Council to make available some of their works to the indigenous companies to produce in commercial quantity,” he added.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
