Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria Decry High Drugs Import

Posted on: Fri 06-04-2018

Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has decried the country’s reliance on imported pharmaceutical products.

The society lamented the rampant abuse of drugs and other substances by youths.

Its President Ahmed Yakasai spoke to reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital ahead of the inauguration of the new state executives of the PSN.

Yakasai said 70 percent of the drugs being consumed in the country is imported from China, India, Pakistan and even Ghana.

He said: “We have been fighting fake and sub-standard products. We have been fighting drug abuse. Drug abuse is dangerous to the economy and nation’s security.

“If the medicines are not available, surely there be security problems. We know what is happening as par herbal drugs. when I travelled to Ghana, a small country that is not up to the population of Kano, I noticed that it is manufacturing herbal drugs for export. When I went to the United States three months ago, I saw Ghana’s pharmacobia. So, I started making noise in the social media before the Minister for Health Prof Isaac Adewole set up a committee on Nigeria’s pharmacobia.

“So, PSN is fighting fake and sub-standard drugs, drug abuse and promoting local production of drugs. We have a national policy on drug production. The last time it was reviewed was 2005. We agreed that Nigeria’s manufacturers should produce 70 percent of the drugs for local consumption and 30 percent imported.

“We are supposed to be exporting drugs, but Nigeria is still getting them from China, Pakistan. Ghana plans to be the hub of drug production in Africa. They want to produce and bombard Nigeria with pharmaceutical products.

Yakassi said because there was no enabling environment, too many taxes and lack of infrastructure, and that were yet to reach the level Ghana had attained. He said we produce about 30 percent and import the balance, despite that we have the human resources.

He praised Dangote for investing in a petrochemical company where Nigerians could get chemicals for drug production. The Dangote Petrochemical would be 13 times that of Eleme Petrochemicals, he said.

To ensure that the petrochemical company comes on stream, Dangote, he said, sent 800 Nigerians abroad for training, adding that soon Nigeria will be exporting.

“You were aware when we were fighting common tariff, some people went to Bamako, Mali and after taking tea, they now agreed that pharmaceuticals should attract zero tariff finished products and that raw materials for pharmaceuticals should attract three to 20 percent tariff because many of those small countries don’t have industries. Fortunately, Nigeria signed. And we have about 178 pharmaceutical industries, 120 are registered and four qualified by World Health Organisation.

“Unfortunately, before you are qualified, you had to spend $4 million without any assistance from the government. So far, two of them are moribund. Swifer has already been taken over by a bank and sold. Evans already taken over by the bank and almost sold. Others near comatose.”

By: Adekunle Jimoh

The Nation News

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