Nigeria’s biggest drugmaker will partner with Chinese firms to build a $100 million plant in the West African nation to help alleviate a shortage of medicines.
Fidson Healthcare Plc signed a cooperation memorandum with Jiangsu Aidea Pharmaceutical Co., PharmaBlock Sciences Nanjing Inc. and the China-Africa Development Fund to start building the facility in the commercial capital of Lagos within the next 30 months, the Nigerian drugmaker said by email.
The plant aims to foster “self-reliance in health-care delivery, especially to tackle HIV” in Nigeria, Fidson said.
Africa’s most populous nation has an estimated 2 million people living with the virus, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Last year, the government’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS said the country recorded about 1,400 new infections weekly, and about 1.2 million children are orphaned because of it.
The country of 220 million people imports all its anti-retroviral drugs, limiting availability. Surging inflation, a volatile and depreciating currency, rampant insecurity and electricity shortages are driving US and European multinationals out of Nigeria, including GSK Plc and Sanofi SA, worsening access to medications for opportunistic infections arising from the disease.
Fidson, which manufactured over-the-counter drugs for GSK, is stepping in to fill the void in the country’s drug-supply chain. It has introduced more than 16 new products since June last year, according to the company.
“By integrating our expertise and experience in the field of innovative drugs, we are confident in bringing greater well-being to patients,” Fidson said. “The complementary strengths of all parties will inject new vitality into the health-care sector.”
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