Emzor: Breaking Malaria with $23m Investment 

By Atinuke Morris

Pharmaceutical industries, the world over, depend actively on active pharmaceutical ingredients, APIs. They are like the bloodstream of the industry, and for Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries, new prospects are at the doorpost for local production of APIs with a £13.85 million loan from the European Investment Bank, EIB, to develop a $23 million production plant for APIs. 

The Sagamu, Ogun state production plant of Emzor is a beehive of activities. Construction engineers on site are busy putting the finishing touches to the production plants, which, upon completion, would be churning out 400 metric tonnes of APIs yearly.  

Currently, 90 per cent of APIs needed in local industries are imported. This puts the industry in dire straits due to difficulty sourcing adequate forex to secure the ingredients. However, this narrative will change by the first half of 2024 with the two-phased plants for the production of APIs by Emzor coming on steam.

Reports showed that Emzor secured the EIB loan to grow its widening production lines and buoy Nigeria’s investment strength. Local manufacturers are also expected to heave a sigh of relief from the new strides. 

Emeka Okoli, the chairman of Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries, stated that, with the loan, four anti-malaria APIs (artemether, lumefantrine, sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine) would now be produced locally.

Available statistics show that Nigerian importation of finished drugs stood at N1.3 billion as of 2021. With more than 150 pharmaceutical industries in Nigeria depending on only 25 per cent of drugs locally available and 90 per cent of imported APIs, Emzor’s forays into APIs point to new hopes for enhanced local production of drugs and widened raw material markets for players in the industry. 

Many drug manufacturers in Nigeria are import-dependent. APIs are largely imported from China and India. With the local production of these ingredients by Emzor, smaller manufacturers that could not order large consignments of drugs from China can now have their needs met locally. Besides, foreign competitors operating in the Nigerian drug markets will lose a sizeable portion of their clouts, as local APIs by Emzor will throw open the market for new local investors. 

Another benefit of the local production of APIs by Emzor is greater prospects of drug security and sufficiency for Nigeria. Over the years, local drug manufacturers have been calling on successive governments to pay more attention to health care by investing in local drug production. The Emzor’s intervention is a new window of opportunity for drug security in the country.

Additionally, the devaluation of the Naira offers drug manufacturers better chances of local sourcing of APIs with attendant benefits of reduction of prices of drugs across the country. 

Arthur Delor, investment officer (Corporate Finance and Global Activities Department) of EIB, explained that his bank offered Enzor the facility to frontally attack malaria prevalence in Nigeria and bring up employment prospects for Nigerians. 

“We are very excited about this operation and are confident that the development of this facility will bring many benefits to Nigerians and the broader African pharmaceutical sector, as it will contribute to reducing import dependency and ensuring a local and more resilient supply of high-quality competitively priced anti- malaria API,” said Delor.

Industry operators across the country are excited about the new investment drive. 

They consider the initiative a bold effort to deepen and strengthen the local pharmaceutical industry, stressing that “Emzor’s investments in APIs at this stage of our economic challenge is a bold” move that is “more than a business initiative.” 

“It is a patriotic effort that should be widely commended,” they noted.