The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has explained how an increase in local production of pharmaceutical products reduced the importation by 63 per cent in two years.
The agency made this known when it issued a rejoinder to Business Day edition of 24th August 2023 titled “Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical Import drops 63% in Two Years.”
In a statement, issued by Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye the Director General of NAFDAC, the agency noted that: “While the write up quoted this data from the International Trade Center, a multilateral agency, laid claim to the fact that difficulty in accessing Forex, devaluation of the Naira, attendant high inflation has reduced imports, and this was also corroborated by the immediate past President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria. While this may be true, the full story was not captured.
“The publication provided largely accurate statistics related to reliance on finished drug importation (about 70 per cent of drug consumption), importation of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (100 per cent), huge jump in prices of locally manufactured and imported drugs. The report provided a mixed bag of marginal revenue loss and increase for stakeholders in the Pharmaceutical Sector.
“In the report, it was not asserted that decline in pharmaceutical imports is partly due to increase in local production even though a lot of boosts in local manufacturing is currently taking place as will be emphasized in the following segments.
“As a responsible regulatory agency, it is important that NAFDAC provides a rejoinder to the write up and bring up its perspective within the context of improving access to medicines by Nigerians, even though the Agency is not oblivious of the numerous challenges confronting the pharmaceutical sector in our country.
“At the recently concluded 74th World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasised on the need to strengthen local production of medicines and other health technologies to improve access.
“The resolution by member countries emphasised that integration of local production into overall health systems strengthening can contribute to sustainable access to quality-assured, safe, effective, and affordable medicines and other health technologies, help to prevent or address medical product shortages, achieve universal health coverage, and the strengthening of national health emergency preparedness and response, as well as minimising public health hazards.”
“At the inception of the current NAFDAC administration in November 2017 the overarching goal was to formulate and implement policies aimed at enhancing and promoting local production of pharmaceuticals. The Director General has emphasised this to promote access to quality, safe and efficacious medicines. She explicitly delivered this message at the National Association of Industrial Pharmacists Annual Meeting held in Ilorin in 2018. All these led to the formulation of a number of policies which are beginning to yield the expected outcome.”
The agency further added that in spite of the multitude of challenges confronting the local pharma industries in Nigeria, local production is the surest means of providing quickest access to quality, safe and efficacious medicines.
“This stance is further supported by the recent disclosure by the Special Adviser to the President (Salma Anas-Ibrahim) at a workshop in Nigeria to reduce importation of drugs in Nigeria to 40 per cent as a means of bridging the gap in the health sector.
“The journey to achieve this lofty ideal, though a marathon, can be achieved in a very short time if all stakeholder and relevant government agencies in the country collaborate to change the narratives in favor of enhancing domestic production of pharmaceuticals,” Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye said.