Nigeria Witnessing Boost in Pharmaceutical Sector, Says NÀFDAC 

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja 

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye, has emphasized that a strong regulatory framework and intentional government policies are essential for a virile pharmaceutical sector. 

She said that as a result of NÀFDAC’s regulatory capacity, Nigeria has recorded sixfold increase in local manufacturers. 

A statement signed by NÀFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sanyo Akintola quoted the DG as having disclosed this at the commissioning of a new ultra-modern facility of SAM Pharmaceuticals Limited, Sango-Ota, Ogun State.

He said Adeyeye told the gathering that what was being witnessed was a culmination of deliberate government policies and a dogged regulatory system.

The statement also quoted the DG as saying that, “the effectiveness of the agency’s ‘five plus five’ policy and the ‘ceiling list’ has now made it possible for local manufacturers to expand and fully utilize their capacities”. 

The NAFDAC DG noted that having been successfully re-benchmarked for the World Health Organization Maturity Level 3 (ML3) status – the first National Regulatory Agency in Sub-Saharan Africa to scale through the re-benchmarking exercise, the next goal for the agency is attaining the WHO ML4 status, and ultimately, the WLA (World Listed Authority) status, which invariably confers on our manufacturers, the opportunity of marketing their products anywhere in the world. 

According to Adeyeye, ‘quality is synonymous with trade. When quality is built into the product, trade will be enhanced.’

Similarly, she said contract manufacturing has witnessed about six-fold increase. 

‘We insisted that you must migrate to local manufacturing or if you don’t have the capacity, you should partner with a local manufacturer. We now have sixfold increase in local manufacturers. 

“No investor would like to invest where the regulatory system is weak,” she said 

Also speaking at the occasion, the Consul General of India to the country, Mr. Kannan Chockalingham said pharmaceutical manufacturers have ascribed the growth in the Nigeria Pharma sector to a strong regulatory system and deliberate government policies to enhance ease of doing business in the country. 

Giving the exponential growth in the sector, Mr. Kannan Chockalingam, pledged India’s commitment to supporting Nigeria, not only in the area of finished pharmaceutical products, but in strengthening local capabilities and technology capacity building. 

In his goodwill message, Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, Chairman, FIDSON Healthcare Plc said, ‘What we are witnessing would not have been possible without the NAFDAC’s policy intervention.

Minister of State for Health, Dr. Isiaka Salako spoke of the ongoing transformation of the nation’s pharma industry, saying the renewed commitment to unlock healthcare value chain not just for economic reason but also as a key enabler of medicine sovereignty.

Before now, the minister said a number of factors including some suboptimal prioritisation and a lack of requisite political will prevented the nation’s contextual system from harnessing the immense benefits associated with pharma and related value chain. 

He however, stressed the present administration has now rightly positioned the sector to not only meet Nigeria’s teeming population healthcare needs, but to also drag growth and development in many other auxiliary sectors.

 “As a result of the implementation of the Presidential Order on zero tariff on pharmaceutical machinery, APIs and other items, Salako said that 87 local manufacturing companies are directly benefiting from incentives spread across a total of about 1000 harmonised system codes.