All is set for the 5th Edition of Nigerian Pharma Manufacturers Expo 2019 billed to hold on August 28 and 29 at The Haven, Oba Akinjiobi Street GRA Ikeja, Lagos.

The exhibition with the theme “Strategic Collaboration for Medicine Security, Affordability and National Sufficiency”, according to the Executive Secretary, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), Frank Muonemeh, was carefully chosen to speak to the challenges of access to medicine in Nigeria essentially as it concerns attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1,3,8, &9.

In recent months regulators across many countries have recalled dozens of medicines to treat high blood pressure because they were found to contain potentially cancer-causing impurities.

These medicines (including valsartan, losartan, Irbesartan) are commonly prescribed globally and came from different manufacturers. The impurities were due to changes in the manufacturing process.

The pharmacist cautioned people who indulged in self-medication to desist from it, saying the act was highly detrimental to their health. She also said that diseases such as hypertension and diabetes if not managed or poorly managed could also lead to damage of the kidney.

The recent disclosure that a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that an estimated 10.6 million Nigerians had used cannabis in 2018 has further emphasised how deep-rooted the problem of drug abuse is in Nigeria and why urgent, innovative strategies are needed to tackle this menace that has snowballed into a great health, social and security problem for the nation.

The Country Representative of the United Nations on Drug and Crime (UNODC), Oliver Stolpe, who made the disclosure at a programme organised in Abuja on 26 June to mark the 2019 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, disclosed that the NBS estimate had come from a survey funded by the European Union, for which the UNODC provided technical support.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated global guidance on medicines and diagnostic tests to address health challenges, prioritize highly effective therapeutics, and improve affordable access.

The Essential Medicines List and List of Essential Diagnostics are core guidance documents that help countries prioritize critical health products that should be widely available and affordable throughout health systems.

Nigeria’s drug control agency, NAFDAC, has said that the Avastin 100mg injection, that allegedly led to the blindness of 10 patients at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna was wrongly administered.

According to a statement published on its official website on Sunday, Avastin was registered in Nigeria for cancer-related ailments and its use at the eye centre “was an off-label use”.

The Emir of Shonga in Kwara, Haliru Yahaya, says 70 percent of health challenges in the state can be handled at Primary Health Care (PHC) centres if they are adequately funded.

The Emir spoke at the ongoing First Round of 2019 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week at Basic Health Centre, Tanke, in Ilorin South Local Government Area on Wednesday. He said funding of PHCs and payment of salaries to workers were challenges faced in the state.

To reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported medicines and strengthen the fight against fake and spurious medicines, entrepreneurs in the pharmaceutical sector must begin to embrace local contract manufacturing of drugs, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Nalis Pharmaceuticals Limited, Mr. Onwunali Obinna, has said.

Speaking with Pharmanews in an interview recently in Lagos, the Nalis boss, whose company’s manufacturing facility located in Owerri, Imo State, started local manufacturing of medicines last December, said that contract manufacturing can significantly help to boost local manufacturing of top quality medicines and reduce the influx of fake and adulterated medicines from outside the country.

Eminent scholar, Diplomat and former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations (UN), Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, has urged stakeholders to harness the capacity of the nation’s youth and women towards making the maximum contribution to national development.

Speaking at the first public lecture of the Board of Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (BOF- PSN), held at Sheraton Lagos Hotel on Tuesday, the former under-secretary-general of the UN and founder/chairman, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy, and Development (SCDDD) stated that Nigeria needs to look in the direction of youth and women in its quest for rebirth, noting that if Nigeria empowers her huge youth population and women they will be able to make invaluable contribution that will help save the nation.