Nigerian Govt restates commitment to curtail rising cost of drugs
By Ibrahim Umar
Kanempress News
6th May 2024
The Nigerian Government has pledged to bring down the soaring cost of medications to make it affordable.
The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Professor Mojidola Adeyeye, said this in Abuja at a webinar lecture organised by The Cable Newspaper, to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
The event has as its theme: “Addressing Costs of Medicines’’.
According to Professor Adeyeye, the current high cost of medicines in Nigeria will become a thing of the past as the Agency is working in partnership with pharmaceutical industries to bring down the cost of drugs.
She identified rejuvenation of the local pharmaceutical industries as a panacea for high cost of medicines.
Professor Adeyeye said that locally manufactured medicinal products would be more accessible and affordable compared to the imported drugs if local pharmaceutical industries are rejuvenated.
According to the Professor, the devaluation of the Naira accounted largely for the high cost of production locally as the high exchange rate made procurement of raw materials and equipment imported for production extremely high.
She said that due to difficulty associated with procurement of dollar, the cost of imported drugs has soared, as two multinational industries which left Nigeria also accounted for the high cost of some medicals.
Professor Adeyeye also disclosed that NAFDAC under her leadership started the “5 plus 5” regulatory scheme which entails companies importing drugs that could be produced by the local pharmaceutical industry to get a last five-year renewal.
She said that during the five-year renewal period, the importer must migrate to local manufacturing or partner with local manufacturers, adding that this was an outcome of a study.
She said that over 30 per cent of new companies in Nigeria sprung up as a result of the “5 plus 5” initiative, adding that it had encouraged many importers to build their companies.
