Harmonisation key to local vaccine production in Nigeria – FG, stakeholders
The federal government, the World Health Organisation and other stakeholders have said that harmonizing efforts is key to addressing gaps to local vaccines and medicine production in the country. They stated yesterday in Abuja during the national and regional harmonisation conference organised by Home Plus Medicare Services Ltd. in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of […]
vaccines
The federal government, the World Health Organisation and other stakeholders have said that harmonizing efforts is key to addressing gaps to local vaccines and medicine production in the country.
They stated yesterday in Abuja during the national and regional harmonisation conference organised by Home Plus Medicare Services Ltd. in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Dr Omotayo Hamza, the Supply Chain Management Officer of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Nigeria office, said harmonisation between ministries such as ministries of health, science and technology, trade and other major stakeholders will help in the development of a very strong agenda that addresses challenges in implementation of policies for local manufacturing of vaccines.
He said it will also help guide manufacturers on survival of the economy or other issues related to electricity and power, water and the market among others.
The Director, Food and Drug Services, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Olubunmi Aribeana, said local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and medical devices is a sure path to medicine security in Nigeria. She said it also l presents opportunities for job creation, international trade, economic growth and national security.
Represented by Adeola Olufowobi-Yusuf, she said one of the lessons the COVID-19 pandemic taught the global pandemic, especially the low-middle -income countries, is that dependence on importation of critical health commodities, such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and vaccines, is not only unequal to national growth, but also unethical to the overall architecture of national unity and health security.
She said, “It was the era of vaccine nationalism where national pharma companies had to prioritise the countries where they were ensuring significant coverage of their population before considering other countries. It was a moment of despair for Sub-Saharan Africa and low-medium-income countries across the globe.”
The convener of the conference, Dr Olajide Adebola, lauded federal government’s removal of taxes, and import duties on pharmaceutical consumables for medicines production locally.
He said the ideas and strategies from the conference would be harmonised and presented to the government as an implementation framework to update its current policy direction.
The Chief Executive Officer of Esoma Pharmacy Ltd, a local manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, Pharm. Osieyih Oseborega said “70% of the drugs we use in this part of the world are imported. This can be minimised to a less volume by making sure that we encourage local production of pharmaceuticals”.
She said some things considered as challenges in the pharmaceutical industry are really stepping stones to getting into the Promised Land in the pharmaceutical industry.
She said, “Number one is the issue of importation of drugs into this country. How do we do that? By investment. When we invest into the industry we observe that the burden on importation will be reduced. And how do we encourage investors? By making sure the regulatory bodies carefully guide the local manufacturers to meet the world standard. “And by doing that investors will be encouraged to put their money in the industry and this will boost the production of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria. One of the things that most people don’t really know is that the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of profit in it. “