Fred Ezeh, Abuja

Bloom Public Health has entered into agreement with Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP), to boost manufacturing of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria and beyond.

It also accepted as one of its objectives in partnership, to provide technical assistance to NAIP in actualising Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Parks across locations in Nigeria.

The Chief Executive Officer, Bloom Public Health, Prof. Chimezie Anyakora, in his remarks at the signing ceremony, explained that the agreement was necessitated by fears of a global shortage of essential medicines from leading producers and exporters such as China and India, as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that had crippled socioeconomic activities across the world.

Prof. Anyakora, was optimistic that the partnership will better reposition the Nigerian pharmaceutical industries to engage in manufacturing of essential medicines and strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chain system in Nigeria.

He added that the Pharmaceutical Parks, when established, would increase local manufacturing of medicines and greatly reduce dependence on importation of some medicines.

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He promised that Bloom will support the association to develop programmes that would enhance the awareness of the Pharmaceutical hub in Nigeria and beyond.

He explained: “The MoU was a big win for Nigeria and Africa. It’s also a good step in the right direction. The impact of the disruption of the pharmaceutical supply chain is huge and will be felt in months to come. At Bloom, we are excited by the various quick interventions of different agencies of government to solve the problem.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stepped in strongly with finances to provide a solution and support local pharmaceutical industries. Expectedly, NAIP will strategically complement this effort and bring long term impactful intervention that will get Nigeria ready in case of another pandemic of this nature, and also complement all other interventions.”

NAIP National Chairman, Ignatius Anukwu, in his remarks described Bloom Public Health as a strategic partner in their long desire to actualise the establishment of pharmaceutical manufacturing parks in Nigeria, which will serve as a panacea for self-sufficiency in essential medicine availability.

He added: “This will further revolutionize the Nigerian Pharmaceutical sector. Already, NAIP has contracted the development of a business case for the establishment of the industrial parks, which is expected to be ready in a few months.”

He commended CBN for several initiative and stated that NAIP will take advantage of the low-interest intervention funds. “With such infrastructure and capacity in place, Nigeria will be better equipped for epidemics and pandemics like COVID-19 with reasonable quantities of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and excipients in the country,” he said.