Nkiru Odinkemelu

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Group of Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), has decried Nigeria’s over- dependence on imported and donor aids to satisfy the essential medicine needs of the country, while their facilities are abysmally underutilized.

The association noted that it was discouraging to see that products, which the industry has the capacity and competence to produce locally were imported into the Nigerian market, just as it pointed out that such act was not only exporting jobs to other countries while importing poverty to Nigeria, exerting pressure on foreign reserve but was equally giving windows for falsified, substandard and counterfeit medicines.

The PMG-MAN expressed this concern through its chairman, Dr. Fidelis Ayebae at the just concluded 2019 edition of International Exhibition on complete pharma manufacturing. The Nigeria pharma manufacturers’ expo is a traditional event jointly organized by PMG-MAN and GPE Pvt Ltd biennially to provide a platform for pharma and its allied products stakeholders, to engage and network, with a view to upgrade and update their facilities with the latest technology.

The two days expo which held on 28th and 29th August at Haven Event Centre, Lagos had over 120 foreign and 50 local manufacturing companies exhibiting products and latest machineries; while the pharmaceutical companies were only made up of local manufacturing companies, with no foreign manufactured medicine exhibited, the machinery exhibitors were made up of mostly foreign exhibitors.

At the inaugural ceremony, stakeholders from different health strata brainstormed on the theme, “Strategic collaboration for Medicine Security, Affordability and National Sufficiency”, they also spoke extensively on challenges facing the pharma manufacturing industry in Nigeria and the possible ways forward.

Challenges

It is no longer news that of the five local pharmaceutical companies that attained the World Health Organization (WHO) pre-qualification for good manufacturing practice, only two are standing today for obvious reasons which are also affecting other pharma manufacturing companies in Nigeria.

These challenges enumerated by the stakeholders included but not limited to: lack of access to finance to put up appropriate infrastructure and quality management system in line with WHO pre-qualification standard and bench mark; low capacity utilization; low patronage by state actors and challenges of market access; policies that are not so protective of the industry; harsh business environment and access to raw materials as well as poor research and development culture.

Giving insight into this, the chairman of the 2019 expo planning committee and Managing Director, Orfema Pharma Industries Ltd, Prince Degun Agboade while fielding questions from newsmen affirmed that the challenges were overwhelming, just as he sarcastically said that blood was the only thing an average manufacturer has not put in to the business to make it work out.

His words: “… let me start with funding: government selected some key areas and gave them special fund if you remember, sector like agric; why not pharmaceuticals, because it is a security matter?

“Number two is infrastructure:  a lot of us have from two to four generators that we run with heavy cost on diesel, you are the one to build the road to your factory, you have to dig the well for water and refine it.

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“Another is patronage: why should government take gifts of products for us instead of asking us to manufacture? Don’t give us fish, teach us to fish. By the time they are giving us free medicines and they say they are good donors; we are exporting our employments to other countries. Let us produce here, we will employ lots of Nigerians. A lot of our people are having lots of goods unsold and imported ones being brought in by default.

“How about policing our boundaries to guard against importation of drugs especially fake ones? Drugs come into this country just anyhow. You heard the customs in the hall brought most of the drugs they seized at the boarders not only were they doing dangerous business, they are killing us. See drugs that were supposed to be in 10mg, they made it 100mg, so these are important and germane to security of lives”, he concluded.

Ways forward

Citing ways forward, Ayebae who doubles as the chairman PMG-MAN and MD/CEO Fidson Healthcare Plc, stress that to attain self-sufficiency and ensure Medicine security, deliberate radical policy must be put in place, just as an enabling business environment must be created by government to promote, protect and grow the industry.

He said: “Attaining national sufficiency and medicine security guarantees the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1, 3, 8 and 9; Ending extreme poverty, ensuring healthy lives, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and productivity and sustainable industrialization.”

Citing the recently signed African Free Continental Area Agreement (AFCTA), he stressed the need to position the pharmaceutical industry such that Nigeria does not end up a dumping ground for pharma manufacturing.

His words: “It is on this background we propose that government should as a matter of urgency prioritize the local manufacturing industry. Prioritizing the industry from the perspective of medicine security and national sufficiency is the only guarantee to make the best out of the AFCTA protocols, which will make Nigeria the continental pharma manufacturing hub.

“It will be strategic of the Nigerian government of next level led by president Muhammadu Buhari , consummate advocate of local manufacturing, to take full advantage of the Trade and Related Aspect of International Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities by setting up committee on national medicine security to re-invigorate the industry with radical policies focusing on: Establishment of local pharmaceutical manufacturers’ expansion and export intervention fun of N300billion; ensure increased patronage by government of the locally manufactured medicines, enforcing executive order 003 faithfully with institutionalized monitoring and evaluation mechanism; 0 per cent tariff for pharmaceutical raw and packaging materials and retention of 20% tariff on imported finished pharmaceutical products local pharma has capability to produce”, among others.

Still on way forward, Orfema DG posited that, “government has selected some key areas and accommodate them under a separate umbrella which is why we are asking for Pharma fund.

We are not going to be needing that to make profit, drug is a matter of security and sickness doesn’t know whether you are big or small, poor or rich, medicine is a very sensitive security item, therefore government is being called upon to look at these prayers and see how they can come to our aid, it is key, important and for us also now that we have been put on our toes, AFCTA agreement, except we run hard, other people will leave us behind.”

In response to this, the state minister for health, Sen. Adeleke Mamora  assured them that the Federal government, under the next level government of president Muhammadu Buhari was aware of the challenges faced by the industry and was determined to revive local manufacturing industries.