— a process that has been affected since China experienced the on-going coronavirus disease that has assumed global pandemic.

According to the 2019 edition of the Nigerian Pharmaceutical Directory, the local pharmaceutical sector has come a long way since independence, when the sector was mostly populated by foreign drug firms such as Beecham, May & Baker, Pfizer and Glaxo Wellcome.

The foreign companies were mostly into importation and distribution of their products rather than local manufacturing, it was gathered.

As of 2018, Nigeria has about 178 pharmaceutical manufacturing industries and 400 registered importers.

About 120 of the industries are registered, while 13 are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and four have been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation.

Only five indigenous companies manufacture pharmaceutical products locally. The recent export ban by India, therefore, seems to have caused concerns in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector.

The pharmacists, who spoke in separate interviews with PUNCH HealthWise, said it was unfortunate that the government failed to heed the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria’s clamour for intervention in research and local drug manufacturing in the last two decades.

An ex-National Chairman of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria, Obalolu Ojo, bemoaned the situation, saying, however, that all hope was not lost.

“We have been talking about drug availability as a national security issue long before coronavirus showed up. Now, the same virus has taken out China where our major API imports are sourced.

“Becoming self-sufficient in terms of producing our own raw materials is not an issue that is open to a quick fix. It is a systematic approach that will take time,” Ojo noted.

“This is the time for us to start working out modalities for local raw materials. I am sure that once coronavirus is curbed, we would wait again for the next outbreak to occur before we start running around again,” he added.

He said there is hope, if people in authority could do the right thing.

He said investment in research and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients is not something Nigerians should be begging the government to do.

“We should not be begging people to do what they are being paid to do. We need to start thinking differently. As we speak, the price of essential drugs is gradually shooting up,” Ojo warned.

Director of Pharmaceutical Services at the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Moyosore Adejumo, also noted that the restriction placed by India on drug exportation to Nigeria and other countries would adversely affect national drug security.

“I think the FG has a role to play here by ensuring tax exemption and formulating policies that are favourable to the available local pharmaceutical manufacturing industries that can optimally produce essential medicines.
“We have very few manufacturing companies in Nigeria which, in my opinion, are struggling at the moment.

Nevertheless, we will continue to speak with the authorities,” Adejumo said.

Also, Chairman of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (pharmexcil), Dinesh Dua, said that, irrespective of the ban, some molecules may be in short supply within the next couple of months.

“If coronavirus is not contained, then, there could be acute shortages,” Dua warned.

Speaking with our Correspondent, the National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Samuel Adekola, noted that it was unfortunate that the country found itself at such a crossroads.

“This is what we have been screaming all along. Apparently, India had weighed its option and discovered that they could be in serious trouble if they didn’t stop exportation of APIs. You cannot blame them.

“What stops us from getting Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients from our petroleum refinery to synthesise and produce these raw materials?

“The FG must take control of these critical issues and rescue Nigeria,” Adekola counselled.

The National Chairman of Hospital Pharmacists, Kingsley Amibor, lamented that Nigerian had relied on imported pharmaceuticals for too long.

“Right now, we need both long and short-term goals. The short term goal is to focus on alternative means to shore up our medicines before we exhaust the remaining stock.

“The long-term goal entails looking inward on how to develop our own APIs, with a view to manufacturing locally. If we are able to achieve that, it will drastically reduce our perennial reliance on imported drugs.

“The government needs to empower NIPRID and universities in the area of research and development.”

A past chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society Of Nigeria, Bola Oyawole, was more concerned about the immediate effects the export restriction would likely have on Nigerians.

“It is not impossible that India’s pharma restriction would lead to scarcity of drugs and further spike prices of few available ones. The whole world is affected, including Nigeria, because, outside water, virtually everything in this country is imported.

“Unfortunately, nobody knows when China would recover from the virus.”

Meanwhile, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has yet to react to India’s export ban.

It may be recalled that NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had warned in February that Nigeria risked drug insecurity on account of the coronavirus outbreak in China, which had forced many industries to shut down.

As of the time of filing this story, Adeyeye had not responded to email and text messages sent to the agency on the issue.

source: Punch