In a bid to earn foreign exchange and buffer against the dollar crunch, Nigerian pharmaceutical companies have started exporting drugs to African countries, BusinessDay findings show.
The drug makers are also now sourcing almost 50 percent of their inputs locally, as against 41 percent which obtained by the end of 2015, to save themselves from harrowing experiences of dollar scarcity which stalled production for the better part of 2016, BusinessDay found.
Some of the companies already exporting drugs to countries in West, East and Central Africa, are Emzor Pharmaceuticals, Juhel Pharmaceuticals, Pharmatex Nigeria Limited, May & Baker and Chi Pharmaceuticals Limited.
Evans Medicals is also exporting drugs on the basis of the prequalification it obtained three years ago, from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which enables a drug firm to compete for global supply of medicines.
As the foreign exchange scarcity forced Nigerian pharmaceuticals to look inwardly, the country may be following in the footsteps of South Africa, which was forced to look inwards when the league of nations ostrasised that country, on the back of its apartheid policy.
By sourcing almost 50 percent of their active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), bottling and packaging materials and excipients locally, local pharmaceuticals are showing they can do more when the country’s petrochemical plants start working.
These findings were later confirmed by Obi Adigwe, executive secretary of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN).
“Some of our members are already exporting drugs to East, West and Central Africa. Currently, only nine pharmaceutical companies on the continent are WHO certified, and four of them are in Nigeria,” Adigwe said.
At a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday, Adigwe explained that four drug makers in Nigeria are already WHO certified while 15 are positioning for the prequalification to enable them play in the global market space.
He said they now source their packaging materials from fellow local manufacturers such as Beta Glass Plc and Sona, adding that drug makers now come together to buy raw materials in a pool to cut cost on the back of the economies of scale.
BusinessDay independent findings show that SKG Pharmaceuticals, Fidson Healthcare Plc, Afrab, Tuyil Pharmaceuticals, Dana Pharmaceuticals, Unique Pharmaceuticals and Pharmatex, are among the 15 companies readying their plants for WHO certifications.
“Pharma spend in Nigeria is still 15 to 20 percent of the total health expenditure compared with five percent in other countries,” said Muntaqa Umar-sadiq, CEO of Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) at a pre-forum press conference on ‘Improving Access to Medicines: the Imperatives of Local Manufacturing and Effective Supply Chain Management’, which will be held in Abuja late May.
“We need to improve access to medicines as many of our women and children die needlessly. All of what we are doing means nothing to the average Nigerian if we don’t make sure that drugs get to the last person. This is why supply chains and logistics for manufacturers become very important,” Umar-sadiq said, stressing the need to unlock the market potential of the local drug manufacturing industry, to ensure Nigerians have access to affordable medicines.
Africa’s biggest economy has over 100 drug makers that have invested more than N300 billion into the economy. Capacity utilisation in the industry is still less than 40 percent, as critical issues such as poor power supply, lack of clean and affordable water, as well as unbridled drug importation and inconsistent policies, continue to stunt the sector.
Nigeria’s pharmaceuticals share 35 percent of the African drug market and over 70 percent of the West African market, according to PMG-MAN. These firms produce mainly anti-malarials, vaccines and antiretroviral (ARV), antibiotics, anti-helminthics, oncology drugs and diabetes drugs.
Out of over 100 drugs firms, only nine are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange- Neimeth, Neros, Emzor, May & Baker Nigeria, Fidson, Drugfield, Nigerian German Chemical Plc (NGC), Novartis and GSK.
“When you have electricity for five staggered hours in 24 hours and you can’t even use the electricity you get because it’s poor, what do you do?” asked Afolabi Adebayo, executive director at Fidson Healthcare Plc.
“We have a new plant but we also have six generators. You generate 2.5 kilowatts of electricity for every litre of diesel. We have issues with clean water supply. Dollar access is improving and is better than last year, when some of us took half salaries to keep our staff, but government needs to emulate Indian. In India, you get 10 percent for repatriating foreign exchange into the economy,” Adebayo, whose firm completed a N9 billion plant at Sango-Otta in Ogun State last year, said.
ODINAKA ANUDU
