In a bid to strengthen and effectively equip its trade partners to grow the bottom line, SKG Pharma, one of Nigeria’s leading pharmaceutical companies organised a workshop to mark the 2013 Trade Partners Conference.
Welcoming all trade partners to the conference, Oke Akpa, managing director of SKG Pharma, said the objective of the conference was to review the business in the last year and evolve new strategies to meet the challenges of the new year.
This year’s conference seminar with the theme “Accelerating Business Growth” was delivered by Lere Baale of Howes Consulting and chief executive of Business School Neitherlands, Lagos.
“In our business, we need to position for advantage. SKG Pharma as a leader in this industry is positioned for quality as can be seen from its manufacturing hub, which is reflected on its products. The key word in health is quality and that is the reason SKG is benchmarking on producing quality products for quality healthcare,” he said.
In his presentation Baale urged the trade partners to always remember that there are three key reasons why a man is in business: stability, sustainability and innovation. “When these three factors are in place, the growth of business will be accelerated on a geometric progression, which will add value to every party in the business.”
Olumide Akintayo, president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) who was special guest of honour, expressed his happiness with the management of SKG Pharma for innovation and quality of its range of products.
According to him, “Our profession is a broad spectrum with a value building capacity and this conference also serve as a spectrum of networking. As trade partners we are one family with a common goal to build a strong virile industry to deliver healthy and quality pharmaceutical products.”
The PSN president urged the federal government and other levels of government to encourage local drug manufacturing companies like SKG Pharma by patronising them instead of importing from India and other countries. “It is a tragedy if these companies are coming up with essential medicines and you are spending billions of Naira to import the same thing from other climes. We will continue to interact with the government to see a need to do more than it is currently doing to patronise local pharmaceutical industries.”
He revealed that “the business philosophy of an organisation like SKG is in perfect standard with the spirit of national drug policy. You probably will be aware that SKG is one of two Nigerian manufacturers that have installed capacity to produce liquid dosage for the entire West Africa region. When you look at innovation, companies like SKG Pharma is ready to take the industry to the next level.”
As a way of appreciation, SKP Pharma awarded best trade partners from zonal, regional and national levels respectively. The high point of the workshop was the unveiling of three new products to add to the company’s quality range of products. The new products are non-drowsy Novalyn Cough Linctus, which is for soothing relief of cough in adults and children; Novalyn Cough Linctus contains honey, lemon oil and lime oil. Novalyn for children age 1 – 5 is a mixture for children. The third product unveiled is Biophage, which is an oral hypoglycaemic agent used to manage diabetes mellitus.
