Why most pharmaceutical companies
collapse – Juhel CEO, Dr Ifeanyi Okoye
By CHIDI NNADI, Enugu
Monday, January 14, 2008
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•Dr
Okoye
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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When in 1982, Dr Ifeanyi Okoye, managing director and chief
executive officer of Juhel Nigeria Limited went into business;
he did not go straight into pharmaceuticals where he specialized.
Rather, he started in the petroleum industry by opening a
gas plant.
But with the passage of time, this pharmacist returned to
his profession. And today, Juhel Nigeria Limited has made
an indelible mark in the manufacturing sub-sector, particularly
in the manufacture of drugs in Nigeria . Not resting on his
oars, this erudite pharmacist is pushing hard to begin the
manufacture of injections in the country, the first attempt
in the sub-Saharan Africa except Egypt .
In this exclusive interview with Daily Sun, Dr Okoye looks
at his foray into business, his experience in the petroleum
industry, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, advising
the government on what to do to move the pharmaceutical industry
forward. Excerpts:
My name is Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye. I am a pharmacist by profession.
I have my first degree in Pharmacy and masters degree in Pharmaceutical
Technology and a PhD in Tablet Technology. Juhel Nigeria Ltd
was incorporated in 1982 and by 1989 we have built the pharmaceutical
company in old Anambra State to start the manufacturing of
pharmaceutical tablets. The factory was commission by the
Governor of old Anambra State , Col Akanobi.
Foray into petroleum industry
We made a foray into the petroleum industry with the establishment
of an LPG plant at Awka in Anambra State. The gas we are talking
about is liquefied petroleum gas, which is the cooking gas.
We just have the bottling plant from where we dispense gas.
We have a special purpose vehicle for getting it from the
refinery or the depot to a specially built plant. Our plant
at Awka is the first of its kind in Awka. I don’t think
there is any gas business that is doing well in this country
now, so, it is doing the way the others are doing.
From there, we ventured into the downstream industry where
we built petrol filling stations. However, our key business
still remains pharmaceutical manufacturing. We have done well
in this area and we are one of the foremost indigenous pharmaceutical
manufacturers in Nigeria . We are into the various kinds of
pharmaceutical; tablets, syrups, capsules and many others.
New area of pharmaceutical business
We hope that within the next one year, all things being equal,
we will delve into an area that is not very common, that is,
infusion and injection, which we are going to be the pioneer
in Africa, excluding Egypt . This will be coming up in a year’s
time.
Yes, we have got the finance from a foreign bank guaranteed
by Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. That has been approved. We have
made payment for the machines, as you may know the machines
take time to be ready but everything has been sorted out.
And we are expecting that within 12 months, they are going
to arrive.
Our workforce
We are fully okay with human capacity. Currently, we have
about 28 pharmacists in our employ. I am a pharmacist, most
of our management staff are pharmacists, especially in pharmaceutical
technology.
Fake and substandard drugs
I must confess that actually Professor Dora Akunyili has done
the magic in the growth of indigenous pharmaceutical industry
in Nigeria because she has the courage to insist on the importance
and manufacturing of good pharmaceutical products.
Before her advent, we have had the NAFDAC body, but they were
never known because they were not doing what they are supposed
to be doing. But when she came in, she cleaned it up and I
thank God that she had been admired for that. It is very clear
that without her, indigenous pharmaceutical companies will
not be where they are today and Nigerians will not, of course,
have benefited from getting the right products. So, it is
a plus for her.
Like I said earlier, once you have not produced to the standard
that is required, what you are producing is poison. And what
she has done is to limit the importation of poison and eliminate
the manufacturers of poison who have channeled their harmful
drugs to Nigeria and our people were dying without knowing
what the cause of their death was.
Local drugs and imported ones
Of course, local products manufactured in Nigeria are of international
standards. There is an international formulation for any particular
product, we have the British pharmaceutical products and we
have some recent ones like India pharmaceutical products and
we also have some pharmacopeias from America . These are formula
that any pharmaceutical company should follow.
So, all products made by pharmaceutical companies follow the
same formula. So, it is important that Nigerians are made
to understand that the imported products are the same thing
with those made locally. One important thing is that the ones
made locally get to them cheaper, because they are manufactured
locally. And, of course, you will have access to the company
that is manufacturing the product you are taking if you have
a complaint to make.
Our products at Juhel
Like I told you, we are one of the foremost manufacturers
of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria . And I want to let
you know that we have one of the most qualified staff in our
employ. I am the chief executive of the company. I am a pharmacist,
I have a PhD in pharmaceutical manufacturing, I mean, what
else do you want? I have chosen the right people to work for
the company and we are producing products that are of international
standards. Of course, we cannot make any product that is not
registered; all our products are registered with NAFDAC.
We make tablets, capsules, syrups and others. However, there
are products I could mention, products taking by hypertensive
patients, we have Juheltic, we have Vasoprin, we are the sole
manufacturer of Vasoprin, which is a product that prevents
heart attack and stroke and it has been in the market for
years. And we are the first company that manufactured the
product and has remained the only company that is manufacturing
Vasoprin in Nigeria. This is known everywhere. And recently,
we have introduced other products that are controlled products.
So, we are into core pharmaceutical manufacturing, core ethical
products as I have mentioned a few of them.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is not just making money, like I told you earlier,
I have been in manufacturing since 1989. Currently, I am the
national president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria
(MAN), Eastern zone. So, what we are doing is not just making
money, we are interested in the well-being of the people,
so most of our products are products you cannot afford to
leave, if you go hospitals, they are the products that are
being used, so why should we not think of getting them closer
to the people.
Our filling stations
You see, business is a game, if you play and it works well,
you thank God. We got into the game for the interest of Nigerians
and our own little interest. The most important thing is to
serve the people when they need it, that is, exactly what
we have been doing since 1992. Like I told you, currently
we have three filling stations in Enugu and we also have in
Port Harcourt. But we are still spreading, planning to have
a tank farm for petroleum products.
Deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector
Deregulation is the best thing that has happened to the downstream
petroleum sector. However, the deregulation is not yet complete.
The government should try and make this to be complete, so
that people can actually market and buy the right product
at the right price.
That is one of the beauties of deregulation, you sell as you
buy. No, you should bear in mind that the N63.5 ex-depot price
is by the NNPC and probably NIPCO, but people who import don’t
sell at N63.5. That is why I am saying that we don’t
have complete deregulation. If we have complete deregulation,
people will import and sell according to how they bought the
product and government will remove its hands from the pricing.
What the government should do is to privatize the NNPC, once
it privatizes the NNPC and removes its hands from the business,
more people will get into the business and import in competitive
prices and Nigerians will benefit from these. It is very simple.
Why some pharmaceutical companies collapse
I think it has been like that, because some wrong people go
into the business they don’t understand. If you go into
the business you know about, it won’t collapse, the
pharmaceutical business is purely a professional thing, a
trader can’t come in and open a pharmaceutical company
or open a manufacturing outfit for pharmaceutical products,
definitely, we don’t expect that to survive. So, when
non-professionals come into the business you don’t expect
them to last. That, I think is one of the greatest problems
that make some pharmaceutical companies to collapse as soon
as they are established. Then, there is also the problem from
the government as the government has not provided enough infrastructure
for the growth of industry generally. The early death of pharmaceutical
companies can be attributed to lack of infrastructure as supposed
to have been provided by the government.
The effect
We are still suffering it now and it affects the final cost
of our products to the consumers in Nigeria. And, of course,
it has affected our competitiveness within the West African
sub-region. In the West African sub-region, we cannot compete
with our counterparts in Ghana, Benin Republic, Ivory Cost,
Liberia and Sierra Leone, we cannot compete with them because
they have electricity 24 hours, they don’t need to buy
gas to manufacture, they don’t have to make roads to
their factories, they don’t have to drill water to manufacture,
they don’t have even to provide security for their industry,
but in Nigeria we have to do all these and the cost of all
these, of course, will be passed on to the primary consumer.
And it will also affect the salary and whatever you do within
the company and the rapid growth of the organisation.
Exportation
Of course, you can’t think of serious exportation when
you cannot compete with your colleagues around you, because
of that, we cannot export for now. Our table water, Ivy Water,
is the star in the Eastern region. And what we try to do is
to give the people the best. We feel that in making Ivy Water,
we raised the standards of water production to the level we
used in making drugs, so why not pass it unto people for them
to take. If you have the privilege of taking Ivy Water, you
will be rest assured that you are taking water from the right
source, clinically clean water if you want me to say that.
Managing our group of companies
I don’t think it is a problem to manage our group of
companies because I don’t manage all of them single-handedly.
We have employees of about 503, we have many graduates, and
we have many capable hands who manage these things. I can’t
manage all these alone, what I do is to advise, we work together
as colleagues, I advise you where necessary and you advise
me where necessary, it is a team work and we agree on whatever
we want to do. It is actually a group work, which makes the
work much easier to handle.
Advice to government
I have two areas I will like the government to handle in the
next budget. One is that if you are preparing the budget you
have to stabilize the economy, and how do you stabilize an
economy? You cannot stabilize the economy without encouraging
the real sector of the economy. And what do you regard as
the real sector of economy, the real sector of any economy
is the manufacturing sector and the manufacturing sector of
an economy cannot progress without the essential infrastructure.
So, what I will advise the government to do is that by whatever
means, even if it means using all the money this country has
to improve on the energy supply of the country, even if it
means doing nothing else but having electricity in this country
for 24 hours, 365 days that will be enough. So, first and
foremost, they should make sure the budget is with good direction
with the purpose of improving on the infrastructure of the
country, especially the energy sector. With that, the economy
will stabilize and the budget will be meaningful.
Second, they have to look into the import duties of some of
the products. The import duties for pharmaceutical raw materials
should actually remain zero and the importation of complete
products that are made in other countries should be banned
completely because that is the route of bringing unsafe products.
And the import of any material into this country, the duty
should be zero for any machine that is coming into this country
because we use machines for the manufacture of the products.
And when manufacturers are producing, people are employed.
Dream
My dream is that Nigerians will benefit from the knowledge
of the Nigerian pharmacists of which I am one and to give
Nigerians a foremost internationally recognized pharmaceutical
companies for the benefit of Nigerians. I mean a foremost
internationally recognize pharmaceutical company which we
have started , Juhel Nigeria Ltd, that is my key dream
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