Chigozie Amadi
The federal government has given assurances that current effort to rejuvenate local pharmaceutical industry will lead to lowering of cost of medicines in the country.
It assured Nigerians that the various policy measures already put in place by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration would soon begin to reflect positively in the cost of essential medical commodities
Against the background of rising cost of most imported medicines, the government said that locally manufactured medicinal products would be more accessible and affordable compared to the imported drugs.
This was made known in statement by the Resident Media Consultant, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Sayo Akintola yesterday .
He stated that both the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate and Director General, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye gave the assurances at the webinar lecture organised by The Cable Newspaper to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
He said that Pate attributed the escalating costs of pharmaceuticals to the global phenomenon, expressing regrets that for past 20 years the nation has been doing catch-up, stressing that the present administration is focused on solving the issue.
‘’We are working hard to do so through the presidential initiative to unlock the pharmaceutical value chain that the president announced in October 2023. But two pockets of issues underlying what we are observing now. Nigerians are hurting.
“There’s forex devaluation which is on the supply side. The ability to buy materials, equipment, the infrastructure deficit. Some infrastructure for manufacturing that we have is not at the level that could meet up the demand that we have,’’ he said.
Akintola also quoted NAFDAC’s boss as having said that the current high cost of medicines in the country will become a thing of the past as the agency is working hard in partnership with pharmaceutical industry to bring down the cost of drugs.
Akintola said that Adeyeye identified rejuvenation of the local pharmaceutical industry as a panacea for high cost of medicines in the country.
The statement also said that locally manufactured medicinal products would be more accessible and affordable compared to the imported drugs.
According to Adeyeye, the devaluation of the Naira accounted largely for high cost of production locally as the high exchange rate made procurement of raw materials and equipment imported for production extremely high, adding that due to difficulty associated with procurement of dollar, cost of the imported drugs has also hit the roof.
She said two multinationals left which caused the cost of drugs they produce to go up, adding that to encourage local pharmaceutical industry to grow, NAFDAC under her leadership started the “5 plus 5” regulatory scheme where a company that has been importing drugs that the local pharmaceutical industry is able to produce will get a last five-year renewal.
Adeyeye explained that during the five-year renewal period, the importer must migrate to local manufacturing or partner with local manufacturer.
