Nigerian pharmaceutical industry offers little support during disease outbreaks because it is not competitive and the country pays lip service to issues that will rejuvenate it, according to the Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN).
Drug makers primarily carry out research to contain the spread of diseases, and also produce protective equipment for health workers. But only little is happening in the industry as coronavirus spreads across Nigeria.
In an interview with BusinessDay, Fidelis Ayabae, chairman of PMG-MAN, said the country always makes case for importation of drugs more than local manufacturing, stressing that the situation often backfires during disease outbreak.
“The only remedy for drug security is encouraging local manufacturing,” he said.
“It has come to a situation where there is every man to himself. So, what do we do? As long as we think that drug importers have an argument, we will continue to struggle,” he said.
Coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan, China, is ravaging many nations, with deaths in hundreds of thousands across the world.
The United States in early April invoked a Korean War law and ordered 3M Co. to stop export of protective masks to Canada and Latin America and sell to the federal government. Several countries across the world are hoarding export of protective gears, test kits and other medical equipment for self-preservation.
Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic have, at different times, banned export of protective gear including masks and gloves, while India had once restricted sales of paracetamol.
Ayabae said this should be a lesson for Nigeria which is not doing enough to support its local manufacturing sector.
He advocated that hospital-based drugs, which drug makers could produce in the country, should no longer be allowed in.
“There is local capacity for hospital-based medicines, which are used for general ailments here,” he said.
Ayabae’s position is protectionist, but he insisted that it is always better to support local manufacturers than importers as the former are job creators in the economy.
The Nigerian pharmaceutical industry has been hard hit by a number of factors, one of which is lack of funding. This has exposed the likes of Evans Medicals to humongous debts it could not repay. Some players in the industry are also accused of not doing due diligence properly before embarking on expensive projects to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s certification. The WHO certification enables firms to compete for international bids.
Apart from funding, the industry is also hard hit by high production cost, which makes its drugs more expensive than imported ones. Cost of production occupies 30 to 40 percent of their expenditure as the firms spend a lot on energy, water, research and development as well as raw materials. Most of the raw materials used by these drug makers are imported because Africa’s most biggest economy does not have a strong petrochemical industry that should produce resins and excipients.
In an earlier interview, Okey Akpa, chief executive officer of SKG Pharma, had said over-dependence on imports for inputs is hurting the industry.
“Virtually every raw material in this sector has a high import dependency ratio. If you then face the scarcity of forex like we do have in this country, it poses further challenge,” Akpa told BusinessDay in 2019.
Akpa said the industry needs an urgent support to save Nigeria during emergencies.
Odinaka Anudu
