Leading pharmaceutical scientists have called for national intervention in the quest to start local production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, noting that Nigeria cannot achieve national drug security with its over-dependence on China, India and other countries for raw materials.
The experts stated that developing the nation’s manufacturing capabilities for active pharmaceutical ingredients is crucial to the transformation of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. They stressed that the quest to achieve self-sufficiency in drug supply is impossible without a robust local production of APIs.
The active pharmaceutical ingredient is the term used to refer to the biologically active component of a drug product be it a tablet or capsule.
According to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Nigeria currently imports all its APIs with the bulk of the imported ingredients coming from China and India.
The experts, National Chairman, Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria, Ken Onuegbu; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Prof. Cyril Usifoh and former PSN President, Ahmed Yakasai urged the Federal Government to make the availability of APIs to local pharmaceutical manufacturers a national priority.
Speaking with PUNCH HealthWise, Onuegbu said that Nigeria with its huge population cannot afford to continue depending on other nations for its drug needs, noting that the over-dependence of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the country on China and India for APIs put the nation at the mercy of other countries during health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to come together and look at what we can imitate in the conduct of countries that are doing well in API production. We need to study India and China and learn from them because we are lagging behind.
“We are not saying that we should produce all the APIs that we need, but we need to start from somewhere. We can start with paracetamol and then take it from there.
“We must realise that drug security is very important to all nations and learn from what happened to us during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We can all recall how India shut its doors against many countries including Nigeria. India decided to reserve the drugs they have and even the APIs. They decided to keep what they have for Indians.
“India stopped the exportation of products like paracetamol and metronidazole because they wanted to ensure they can serve their citizens, That is a warning to Nigeria that no nation with our population should depend on others for about 70 per cent of its drug needs.
“Self-sufficiency in drug supply is very important and I must stress that we cannot achieve this by buying drugs and APIs from China and India but by addressing our local API deficiency. This is very important,” Onuegbu said.
To solve the problem in the short term, the PSN president suggested that the country should consider bulk purchasing of APIs.
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