‘Strengthening local medicines production key to public health emergencies preparedness’
By Ojoma Akor
The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) says strengthening local pharmaceutical production, improving access to affordable medicines, and strengthening disease surveillance are critical to Nigeria’s preparedness for future public health emergencies.
IHVN’s Program Manager and Pharmacy Lead, Dr. Istifanus Sako Usman, said that Nigeria’s inability to produce sufficient quantities of medicines locally had left it heavily dependent on imports, with the additional costs ultimately passed on to consumers.
“Since importation means higher cost, affordability will continue to be a challenge,” he said.
Dr Usman said that when medicines become unaffordable, patients may resort to self-medication, go without treatment, or purchase fake and substandard drugs, potentially worsening their health conditions. “If the money that people have in their pockets is not enough to buy medicines, people end up resorting to self-medication, which often makes matters worse. Or managing without the medicines or even buying fake and substandard ones; a serious problem requiring government intervention.”
“It may look cheaper, but at the end of the day, it is like being penny wise and pound foolish,” Dr. Usman said while raising concern over the misuse of antibiotics, warning that self-medication could contribute to antimicrobial resistance and make some medicines ineffective when they are eventually needed.
“Self-medication can lead to so many complications, especially with antibiotics. It can lead to the development of resistance to such antibiotics, and when they are needed, they may not be useful,” he said. He therefore advised Nigerians to seek medical attention and take medicines only as prescribed by qualified healthcare professionals.
Govt urged to support local drug manufacturing.
To reduce medicine prices and improve access, Dr. Usman urged the Federal Government to introduce measures that would enable the local pharmaceutical industry to expand its production capacity.
He specifically called for waivers on import duties for pharmaceutical raw materials and excipients that are not produced locally. “If there are duty waivers, then the cost of bringing in the raw materials will be lowered,” he said, adding that such measures would reduce production costs and make locally manufactured medicines more affordable.
He also identified unreliable electricity supply as another major impediment to pharmaceutical manufacturing in the country. According to him, improving power supply would reduce production costs and enable local manufacturers to produce more of the medicines currently sourced from abroad. “Of course, that alone will bring down the cost, and Nigerians will be able to afford medicines for their ailments.”
Expert seeks stronger outbreak preparedness.
Dr. Usman also urged the government to strengthen disease surveillance and emergency preparedness to ensure that essential medicines are available during disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.
He said Nigeria must adopt a proactive approach by strengthening surveillance systems, particularly at the country’s airports, seaports and land borders. He cited the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of the importance of early preparedness, saying Nigeria’s strengthened emergency response mechanisms helped the country manage the crisis and earned it international commendation.
According to him, Nigeria should maintain the same level of preparedness for emerging threats. “For example, we know that there is an Ebola outbreak in Congo and neighboring Sudan. Of course, one of the things that we should do is to ensure that there is surveillance at all entry and exit points of the country, such as the airports, seaports and borders with other countries,” he said.
He further called for medicines and other supplies required during emergencies to be procured in advance and strategically positioned in areas considered vulnerable to outbreaks.
“Because Nigeria has vast and porous borders with other countries, surveillance should be improved so that illegal immigrants will not come in with that particular disease that we are scared of.”
