Forecasts for Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry as regards drug manufacturing is negative for 2020 and beyond but experts say strategic planning by companies can ease this.
Given the complexity, uncertainty and pace of change in drug manufacturing Nigeria’s Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) at its first bi-monthly meeting for the year, themed ‘2020 Economic Outlook’ provided insight into emerging trends that may have impact the practice of pharmacy and the health of patients.
These experts have forecasted a negative and tough year for the Pharma industry because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
They have advised manufacturers saying the process of strategic planning should not be on going as a continuous process with regular review will allow key players in the industry to tactically adjust in the course of their planning this year as the economy shifts and new unpredictable and new trends emerge.
Sam Ohuabunwa, president of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) said the central message is that 2020 is going to be a tough year economically for several reasons and the economy is calling for greater introspection.
Ohuabunwa emphasised outlined what Nigeria can do if the external environment is getting difficult doing business with china starts coming at elevated costs.
“We need to be more internally focused and prepare for a difficult year and optimize the opportunities that we have. The pharmaceutical industry should seek how to increase its relevance and be less dependent, that is the warning,” he said.
According to Ohuabunwa, Nigeria should be less dependent on imported inputs, let the industry spend more time to develop local inputs to production and see how we can even boost local manufacturing of medicine.
“This country can focus a little bit more, working with the government to help us provide like a petrochemical input which are supposed to be in the forefront which the government have abandoned, if the government can revive this, we should be focusing on developing capacity,” he said.
Reflecting on the 2020 Economic outlook Fidelis Okwuagwu, managing partner of Chapters & Heights Investment Partners Limited advised in every business concern, including the pharmaceutical investment, it is important that beyond economic statistics and projection, individual businesses especially in 2020 should begin to think of Cautious re-investments or expansions along core lines due to tight fiscal spending this year, Diversification along defensive lines, More emphasis on cost management and Trim- sized business and tax management strategies.
“The budget is a deficit one for 2020, which is supposed to promise more spending in excess of inflow, but the lack of production capacities may cause a total underperformance or failure of the budget.”
“The Gross Domestic Product as at the 3rd quarter of 2019 was N51.8trillion across all sector, the pharmaceutical industry is capture in the GDP charts under the manufacturing sector, as at September 30, has contributed a paltry N4.7 trillion which translates to 9 percent,” he said.
Despite the challenges facing manufacturers in the Nigeria pharmaceutical industries and the difficult environment they operate, NAIP is still optimistic about the plan for the the industrial park in line with Nigeria’s pharmaceutical manufacturing development strategy, as a disruptive innovation capable of solving health problems.
Ignatius Anukwu, NAIP’s National Chairman, said that the outlook is now a tradition and the association focus is on how to establish a pharmaceutical hub to improve production and investment in Nigeria’s pharma industry.
“The idea is that there will be shared facilities and they are more assured with the supply of power, while we improve on the capacity of what we produce in Nigeria. We have been on this for a year,” he said.
According to Anukwu, in advocacy with Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, they are inviting NAIP to collaborate with them in this project.” Our vision a line and the next thing is to sign a memorandum. As technical experts, it will be a synergy.”
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
