FG Should Make Economic Climate Very Friendly for Pharmaceutical Production

The executive

Idowu Obasa

Chairman, Biomedical Pharmaceutical, Idowu Osuolale Obasa, is a frontliner in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry. Taking on the reins of the pharmaceutical company five years and counting, his establishment has since broken new grounds in the areas of research, medical innovative devices, 14 infusion products and 22 affordable life-saving. He speaks to Adedayo Adejobi about his incursion into pharmaceutical manufacturing, the industry, economy, how foreign exchange hampers raw assessing materials, celebrating 40 years of the pharmaceutical manufacturing and why technology is the future of medicine. Excerpts:

You are a trained accountant, what led you to set up a pharmaceutical company?

As an accountant by training, one is endowed with certain skills which prepare one to operate in any business environment. Quite frankly, training and experience over the years prepared me for what I’m doing now. I’m an entrepreneur and not a pharmacist. My training as an accountant assisted me in becoming an entrepreneur, more even if I had trained as something else.

An accountant can work in any environment and still excel because he has the rudiments and basic tools that he needs. Once you have the entrepreneurial zeal, you will succeed. I know a lot of doctors who run furniture factories. Being an accountant has made it easier for me to become an entrepreneur. It’s not strange that I am in this business.

You could have been in any other business. Why an intricate industry?

I didn’t have any particular interest in pharmaceuticals, however being in it, I find that I am now interested in making a difference in the kind of things that we do. We are interested in research and development, and in making our drugs available to as many people as possible. We look at affordable drugs. We are also interested in turning out drugs that would have been ordinarily imported.

Biomedical is the first Nigerian pharmaceutical company to produce intravenous drips in Nigeria.

Before then, it was being imported. But Dr Faruq Abdulaziz, who started the company decided to do the same as a solely Nigerian company. I admire such a thing. And when we took over from him, we said we would break as many new grounds as possible, hence, we set we set up a first class research and development function that looks at various possibilities. I’m very interested in kidney-related diseases and today, Biomedical is the only Nigerian company producing a device called Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD). This device allows people to do self- dialysis on their own. A lot of people die in Nigeria today because they lack access to dialysis which could be due to money, or the fact that there are not even enough dialysis centres.

We have the facilities to produce the device because we researched it. The research was initiated by a professor who had approached us to back his research interest, but this was part of the job of our research and development function who uses research professors interested. The research took over five years and today it’s in the market. It gives us some satisfaction that we are able to contribute to knowledge and solve a problem. Now, we insist, that we are a zero-tolerant company in terms of quality control. That we can get many drugs to as many Nigerians as possible without necessarily cutting their throats- it is important to us. We are conscious of the fact a lot of Nigerians lack access to quality medication. We have a corporate social responsibility, and our first responsibility is to ensure that we don’t produce sub-standard drugs. We produce life-saving drugs and ensure they are not sub-standard in any way. We also ensure that we are as affordable as possible, and we think we are just starting.

How would you rate the economic climate as it affects your industry?

Unfortunately, the economic climate is very unfriendly, because for as long as we are very heavily dependent on imports, the foreign exchange situation ought to be deliberately encouraging to manufacturers. In general, and in particular reference to pharmaceutical production.

There are all sorts of things we can also manufacture that are not directly life-saving. Very special support and concessions ought to be given to us because of the nature of what is being produced. It’s ridiculous to know that if government does this kind of thing, it’s lip service.

Customs wants to charge us the same things they charge any importer that’s not related to pharmaceutical products. How do you help the poor? Is it not by ensuring that things are produced as cheap a rate as possible? If they charge the same import duties as they would charge cars, it is ridiculous. But that’s what happens. And then you wonder whether they don’t understand that encouraging imports related to education, health, medicine, and pharmaceuticals- is that they are killing businesses. Perhaps they don’t know, or they know and they don’t care.

What kind of drugs do you produce?

Until recently, we were producing just 14 infusion products. Since we took over in 2015, we were determined to get the company to be one that produces all sorts of products. We are producing 22 syrups and we will add eight more. Even as we just started syrups less than six months ago, we are already thinking of expanding the facility because of the demand. This was facilitated by a huge loan from the Bank of Industry, and we’ve kept faith with them since we took the loan.

What’s the workforce like?

The workforce is not large. The machines do most things. But we have over 120 staff.

Asides from many other businesses you run, how do you manage sitting atop boards of various businesses?

I’m just a facilitator and a strategic thinker for the businesses, so I don’t really consider myself a busy person because I understand delegation. Without trying to be immodest, I have been properly schooled in corporate governance, enough to be able to know that structures and procedures, if properly in place, anyone sitting at the top doesn’t need to sweat as one digging a trench. All you need to do is create an internal control system that works, right processes and structure, and then allow those things to work. With information technology, the internet and zoom, my Ipad is my office. I can work away from the office for six months. I don’t need to directly implement anything.

If you have a good appraisal system and you allow it to work, you will have a healthy firm. We even have a whistleblower arrangement in our companies, and people can independently blow whistle through our auditors and it will come to the attention of the board. No staff needs to come to me to complain. If there is a sufficient reason to complain, I’ll get it through that channel. I’m a systems person.

In the last few years of running the pharmaceutical business, what would consider the challenges?

Because we need raw materials and they are largely imported, raw materials and foreign exchange are the major things. Knowledge is available, but getting raw materials to get the factory working is always a challenge. Even when you think you have resolved it, somebody will come. Today, we are having problems with where our suppliers from China should use Tin Can Island or Apapa Port, and a lot of them don’t want Apapa port, because the raw materials can be there for three months.

On account of an administrative decision somewhere back by government power, has seen us resume our normal options. It means we reduce our ability to supply. If they are going to take such decisions, the coronary is to improve the Apapa Port. If you have two ports, people should be able to use them. How well is the place coordinated? How functional is it? Sometimes, bureaucratic bottlenecks are created and affect us. If we run fewer shifts, there is no way it wouldn’t affect the workers and government revenue. In manufacturing, we face challenges different from the ones faced in services.

What solutions would you recommend in addressing the aforementioned?

The government should get their acts together regard the foreign exchange situation. They seem not to understand what they want to do regarding foreign exchange. For us as manufacturers, we are more interested in how to get raw materials to keep the factory running. Government should also look at special concessions and privileges. Pharmaceuticals is one of the most important at this time.

We want to celebrate our 40 years anniversary by de-worming 400,000 school kids all over the country- that for us is Corporate social responsibility. But, we want the government to appreciate such kinds of gestures and replicate by giving us an enabling environment.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has broken the monopoly of Bureau De Change (BDC) Operators, and liberalised foreign exchange by giving the money to banks to disburse. What is your assessment of this policy?

We welcome it because we would not have made any money if we depended on Bureau De Change, but the effect of the announcement is yet to be felt, but we are hoping. The fault doesn’t lie with the banks. The problems start with the Central Bank of Nigeria and not the banks. Our banks struggle to get us as customers and they want us to do well so they can make their profits from us. The banks have also been complaining just as we have been complaining. The Central Bank of Nigeria has to wake up to its responsibilities. You cannot run the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the way you run a commercial bank. The Central Bank of Nigeria is a regulated body, and everything depends on them. Any pronouncements will send all sorts of signals down the industry.

Have you considered backward integration- say production of your raw materials?

We are not capable of all our raw materials. Most of our pharmaceutical materials are simply imported and not from the same country. All kinds of chemicals come from various countries. There are three major raw materials we use in the infusion factory- chemicals, pouches, and water. We produce 14 infusions produce and each one has different chemicals. Most of them are imported. We produce our water. We were producing our pouches locally, but we found out that it was much cheaper to import than to produce locally. The equipment is still there in the factory. Even those using bottles, still import the granules.

In a very hostile environment, Biomedical is 40 years. How have you meandered the storm? What are the plans to celebrate the milestone?

It calls for celebrations. I’m sure before we took over, it’s been good. I took over in 2015. I can speak more eloquently about that period. I can say that before then, maybe there were a few problems in the area of finance, but since we took over, we have somehow managed to stablise the company. We have also established a reputation for good quality and we say that very proudly. Our determination is we are not going to relent in maintaining the reputation. We have tried to introduce very good corporate governance structures and culture, and we are trying to make ourselves an employer of good reference within the industry where people will be proud to work and associate with us. I think we are on cause in doing that. We’ve put together a good number of professionals. Who know their onions and they are fired up and determined to get the company to great heights. It’s been a good ride since we took over.

We would like to consider the launching of our syrup collection as part of our celebration, especially for a company that was known so many years as a producer if infusions now producing syrups. The syrups are doing well in the market. We also want to indicate that we are going into other forms of products, especially tablets.

We will be launching our Corporate Social Responsibility programme, which is the de-worming exercise for 400,000 children across the country. That’s our little way of giving back to society, and to mark the fortieth anniversary.

In almost two years and counting, the world has and is still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. As a major play, a major role in the health sector Are you looking in the direction of vaccine production?

Our immediate response was to produce hand sanitisers and hygiene products when National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) encouraged us to do that. For us, it’s a tall order, but we are certainly collaborating with some foreign organisations to have a hand in that, if not in terms of production, but in terms of importation. We have opened discussions, but you know I’m not at liberty to reveal details. We have thought about it and are persuaded that we don’t have the facilities. We hope to have the facilities in the near future to do that.

What other areas of medicine is BioMedical looking to break new grounds?

I was going to say poverty, but seriously, some years ago, I read that about 61% of our ailments and medical problems we face belong in the category of normal malaria, typhoid, hypertension and tuberculosis. If you look around, the drugs that help to control those ailments are readily available but are not cheap enough. I have had to go to India for surgery before, and I realised that what they did in India was to look for the best of the most affordable drugs. I found for instance at that time, while my six months of drugs were costing me about say over 100,000, the drugs I brought back after my surgery were costing not more than 20,000 for six months. And they were effective drugs. I’m still using some of them till today because they are very affordable. Even though I have changed one or two of them when I travelled to the United States of America. As the Doctors there explained, there are so many people and so much poverty, so they must look for drugs people can afford. Availability of drugs at prices that don’t have to kill people, is a matter of concern to me. That spells access for me.

Beyond that, Biomedical is interested in researching further into Kidney related Issues so that we can begin to produce drugs. It is one of the areas people just die, as they don’t have the right kind of attention.

In the next 20 years, where do you see Biomedical?

I see Biomedical Pharmaceutical having established itself as a household name and a company that produces basic affordable and life-saving drugs.

The future of Medicine is technology. How do you see the Pharmaceutical industry integrating Telemedicine?

It’s inevitable. The future of Medicine is technology. Isaac Asimov started the Robot series. In 1958, he wrote I-robot. If in 1958, someone had that kind of imagination and wrote a science fiction novel that saw robots serving people normally, then it’s clear where the world is going now. The future of telemedicine is the future of medicine.