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Nigeria’s effort at strengthening its testing capacity across the country might not make meaningful impact if the pharmaceutical industry remains in doldrums, behind advanced technological resources being activated in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak around the world.
Also without the integration of the aviation prowess in ferrying essential medical supplies around the country, the outcome of Nigeria’s coronavirus situation could get grimmer than it is.
Speaking during the opening session of the two-day BusinessDay digital dialogues titled ‘National Conversation: Mapping Nigeria’s Response to COVID-19’, Maurice Iwu, president, Bioresources Development Group (BDG), said it was essential for the pharmaceutical industry to be encouraged to roar into relevant actions capable of resolving pandemics without a vulnerable dependence on what arrives at the seashores.
While there are homegrown explorations into the development of compounds, the professor regrets that none of the large pharmaceuticals in the country has manufactured base ingredients, a situation he described as an offshoot of poor investment in research and development (R&D) to address the gap.
“My own take is that the entire pharmaceutical industry has to change. We have to embrace the fact that we do not have to rely on others for our own medical need without in-country synthesis of active ingredients. We are so vulnerable that even if we do all the tests in the world and we do not have a means of taking care of ourselves, we are very vulnerable,” Iwu said during the panel session titled ‘COVID-19: How is Nigeria and Africa’s trajectory different from the rest of the world?’
The session was moderated by Chinny Ogunro, CEO, WellSpring Health, and had Akin Abayomi, Lagos State commissioner for health, Funke Adeyemi, regional director, Africa, International Air Transport Association (IATA), Christie Happi, director, African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), Redeemer’s University, Maurice Iwu, chairman, Bioresources Development and Conservation Program, Fola Laoye, founder & CEO, Health Markets Africa, and Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed, vice-chair, ANAP Foundation COVID-19 Think Tank as panellists.
“The CBN intervention is doing some good job, but I think the major issue is that we should move out from being a consumer nation to a nation that produces,” he said.
Nigeria is expected to see the production of COVID-19 vaccines from a partnership with United States Health Institute that compared some Nigerian sourced compounds against COVID-19. The result of that comparison is three active compounds, patented and awaiting clinical trial to commence market readiness.
For Funke Adeyemi, regional director, Africa, International Air Transport Association (IATA), without aviation’s active role in moving cargoes, the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19 would have worsened.
Even as air travel is expected to resume in the coming weeks with the potential to increase the number of infections, she said the industry is working to strengthen measures of protection especially for the demographic most at risk.
“Aviation is one of the hardest hits sectors from the Covid-19. Over the last three months, passenger travel reduced by 90 percent and that put about 3.2 million jobs at risk. For Nigeria, this means a lot also. The industry lost about $7 million and about 90,000 jobs at risk across the entire aviation. So this is the economic impact,” Adeyemi said.
Christie Happi, director, African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (AGEGID), Redeemers University, said actions and efforts are being synchronised globally to ensure that vaccines, when developed, are equitably accessible by all nations.
The Centre led by Happi was the first on the African continent to produce a genomic sequencing – information on the behavioural pattern of Covid-19 to the global medical community.
Happi said vaccine currently being developed by AGEGID with other partners will be available by the second half of 2021, upon success at the research and development phase and regulatory considerations.
“In terms of availability, we have confirmed our intention to manufacture at least a billion doses of the vaccines that can be combined with vaccines from a number of manufacturers. So what we are still doing is to support multiple development on many candidates doing the vaccines. This will help us expedite the availability of vaccines all over the world,” the professor explained, adding that WHO’s commitment to the inclusive distribution of vaccines will see a trickling down to many parts of the world with the support of the biggest donor to health, GAVI, the Alliance which recently released $8.8 billion relief.
Happi noted that despite the lag, a lot of resilience has been shown by the pharmaceutical industry in the aspects of global response and management of the crisis.
Kunle Oyelana, managing director, GSK Nigeria, reinforced this in his contributions highlighting how encouraging the industry’s response has been to ensure both a robust supply of medicines used in the management of Covid-19 as well as support for sensitisation on the virus and personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare facilities.
He stressed that one of the things that will enable the full reopening of all the economy will be the availability of vaccines, which means that promotion and encouragement of collaboration between global pharmaceutical multinationals and local manufacturers in terms of technology transfer. This, he noted, will further strengthen Nigeria’s drug supply system and of course the ability to prepare for the next pandemic.
Answering questions as to where Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, is in the battle against Covid-19, Akin Abayomi, Lagos State commissioner for health, said the state has tried to ensure that the public health crisis does not degenerate into economic breakdown and social unrest. This, he said, is why the state has introduced some relaxation measures as it gradually eases the lockdown.
With the isolation facilities increasingly overwhelmed, he said there has been a review in the admission basis which will integrate homecare for mild and asymptomatic cases in the coming weeks and reservation of core isolation centres for patients who need close monitoring such as oxygenation and are likely to degenerate.
“The underlying principle of managing Covid-19 is ‘test and isolate’ to deter the opportunity for the virus to be transmitted from one person to the other. In the case where we find majority asymptomatic, if we find thousands or millions who have Covid-19 but do not have significant features and are not in any perceived danger of deteriorating, we have to review our policies,” Abayomi said.
Fola Laoye, founder and chief executive officer, Health Market Africa, said the private sector has had many roles to play in healthcare in Nigeria.
“Healthcare is for the public good and it’s required by everyone. Large private sector response is an opportunity for us to think about how to merge all our resources which we know we have not just in terms of capital, but in terms of expertise and supply chains,” Laoye said.
“When Covid came calling, the private sector realised that we really need to have a joint resource with the government and it was going to be important,” she said.
She said several organisations, such as the private sector-led CACOVID, have strongly come together to support government all over the country.
“It is a collaborative effort and it has been pretty special and important at a time like this. We have seen some strong skills that are in the private sector, such as First Cardiology’s work with the IDH and government,” Laoye said.
She said the private sector has really come hand in hand to work with the government, adding that in Lagos, 50 percent healthcare services are delivered by the private health sector and that cuts across the pharmacy network.
She explained that in addition to that, Nigeria has seen private laboratories and hospitals that are gearing themselves ready to be able to set up much-needed extra capacity.
“We have seen community efforts from the private sector, advocacy, volunteers and creating a system of operation. We have seen that innovation has been incredible from the ideas of telemedicine to Telehealth and the like,” she said.
IFEOMA OKEKE, ANTHONIA OBOKOH, TEMITAYO AYETOTO & GODSGIFT ONYEDINEFU
