By Chioma Umeha
The Federal Government has made fresh
commitment to promote growth in local pharmaceutical manufacturing that are
pioneering efforts in local manufacturing in Nigeria, saying it would encourage purchase of their
products and create enabling environment for their operations.
Announcing this recently, in Lagos was Minister of
State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who was on a working visit to May &
Baker PharmaCentre in Ota, Ogun state as part of his facility assessment tour
of selected local pharmaceutical companies.
Ehanire further said that boosting local
production is at the fore front of the agenda of the government.
Ehanire said President Muhammad Buhari intends to
grow the economy by improving local manufacturing and the government is
interested in supporting local pharmaceutical manufacturers, and to assist them
develop vaccine technology and capacity for the manufacture of active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in Nigeria.
He said Cuba is offering a helping hand with local
vaccine production, while the Indian government has offered to bring bulk API
manufacturing into Nigeria. Earlier, the Managing Director, May & Baker
Nigeria Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor urged the government to stimulate the local
pharmaceutical industry by providing special funds, easier access to foreign
exchange for raw materials, and patronage of locally manufactured products,
among others.
Okafor also said the Nigerian pharmaceutical
industry is suffering poor patronage from government and individuals who find
imported and sometimes inferior products cheaper to buy. This he said has led
to over 60 per cent idle capacity among local pharmaceutical plants.
He stated that May & Baker PharmaCentre has
capacity to produce 4.5 billion tablets and 37.5 million bottles of liquid
preparations annually but because of these and other challenges of the economy,
the factory is currently running at 50 per cent capacity. The May & Baker
PharmaCentre which was commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan in
2011 was certified by NAFDAC in 2012 and in 2014 received the cGMP
certification of the WHO.
