PMGMAN boss chides pharmaceutical companies defaulting in producing sickle cell drugs

The Chairman, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (PMG-MAN), Pharm. Okey Akpa (FPSN), has taken to the cleaners some drug-producing companies who demonstrate nonchalant attitude towards products they classified as “Orphan drugs.” Akpa, spoke at the at the opening ceremony of a three-day Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo 2015 in Lagos, which concluded yesterday and was staged for stakeholders in the health sector to exchange information, products, services and ideas. In his key note address at the exhibition, with the theme: ‘The Nigerian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry & International Competitiveness,’ PMG-MAN Chairman lamented that a major challenge in Africa is that many International Pharmaceutical Companies are not interested in research and development investments for conditions such as sickle cell anaemia and malaria that are peculiar to the African continent. The three-day programme was declared opened by the Director-