The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control’s (NAFDAC) effort to grow local pharmaceutical industries and push for self-sufficiency in essential medicines for Nigerian pharmaceutical companies is yielding success as Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited has become the first Nigeria pharmaceutical manufacturer and indeed, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, to be considered compliant with the stringent World Health Organisation (WHO) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).

 

WHO pre-qualification team has for sometime been providing technical assistance to manufacturers in order to accelerate submission for pre-qualification and increase their chance to pass successfully through pre-qualification process.

 

As a first achievement of the pilot phase, Swiss Pharma Nigeria limited (Swipha) is now considered to be operating at an acceptable level of compliance with WHO Good manufacturing Practice (GMP), and has been assisted to develop, document and produce medicine meeting quality standards required by WHO.

 

The innovation of Director General NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii is paying off on manufacturing companies with WHO pre-qualification and will be able to access the 200 billion intervention fund, which will boost their production capacity, and also enable them become global players in the industry. "I am very happy with Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited for this great achievement, this is not only for Nigeria, West Africa but globally. I have received messages from other countries congratulating us on this huge achievement,” declared the elated NAFDAC Director General.

 

Speaking further, Orhii said nobody thought that this could be achieved in Africa, “but we knew what we have and believed in the industry. WHO is very excited and encouraged us to keep up the good work and hope that more of this will come to Nigeria. My coming down here is to personally congratulate Swipha, I couldn't just call Swipha on phone to congratulate them I needed to be here to look them in the face and said the word, because they worked so hard to make this happen. People thought it was impossible, but now when you see a fellow Nigerian who has made it happen you know you can do it too, and I believe if we open the door to many other companies in the next few months or before the year runs out, we will achieve good result like this to celebrate," Orhii stated.

He explained that the president was committed to supporting pharmaceutical companies that have good quality and we assured the president that very soon Nigeria would become a sales country in the supply of good quality medicine.

 

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman/CEO, Swipha, Mr. Colin Cumming said it was a historic milestone in the history of Swipha and Nigeria, with firm becoming the first company in Nigeria and indeed the whole of West African sub-region to be declared compliant with the standard of  Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) published by WHO.  He also stated that this would not have been actualised without the visionary leadership guidance and fervent support of this programme by the Director General of NAFDAC and his team.

 

“With this development you have placed Nigeria on the global map of countries that can provide finished pharmaceutical product comparable in quality standard to developed economies. Swiss Pharma Nigeria limited was incorporated in 1976 to manufacture and distribute pharmaceutical products that meet international standards.

The chairman further said that 60 percent of the company’s product portfolio are manufactured locally and are subject to GMP and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for quality control.

 

“And with the achievement, it is expected that this will open up new vistas of opportunity for our company as it will further guarantee the quality of our products thereby opening new market for us and we envisage greater demand for our product within and outside Nigeria,” he said. 

 

By Rosemary Okpave

This Day