Operators woo young graduates to opportunities in drug manfaucturing

Apparently worried by the dearth of young professionals in the pharmaceutical sector, practitioners have urged young graduates and undergraduates alike to embrace emerging opportunities in the industry.

The professionals, under the aegis of National Association of Industrial Pharmacists (NAIP), said a career path in any area of the industry has a potential for lifetime satisfaction and a boost for the local manufacturing sector.

National chairman of the association, Gbenga Falabi, at the 2016 young pharmacists’ mentoring day held in Lagos, said while the country continues to groan under the weight of job losses and unemployment, the pharma industry is offering opportunities to aspiring pharmacists that are dedicated, particularly in the area of production.

Falabi told The Guardian that the dearth of young pharmacists in the industry was neither unique to the sub-sector of the health industry, nor to the country. He observed that there is paucity of health practitioners globally and Nigeria is not an exception.

His words: “Generally, there is a dearth of health workers globally and in Nigeria. If you look at the ratio of medical doctors to patients, nurses to patients, pharmacists to patients, therapists to patients and so on, it is certainly not anything to go by in our country. Then you now go to pharmacists, which unfortunately deals with the drug aspects of medical therapy and it becomes much more challenging. If you need a pharmacists for every ethical product that is dispensed or purchased in Nigeria, then that tells of the enormous shortage.

“Let us assume that 10 per cent of 170 million people needs medication per time. Where are we going to get over 17,000 pharmacists that we need? As we speak today, dead or alive, the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has only registered about 20,000 pharmacists in Nigeria. At the last council meeting, the Registrar told us that we have about 5000 practicing pharmacists in a country of 170 million population.

“If pharmacists are more with patients, then that now shows you how much of shortage we have for the production arm. Right now, it is one of the issues affecting local production as it where, because for every plant that is running, there must be a pharmacist at a time. That is why we organise this young pharmacists’ forum to bring the industry to them and expose them to the industrial practice,” he said.

Falabi added that with mentoring and industrial tour, currently championed by the association, more young Nigerians would be attracted to the industry, in the interest of collective survival.

Chairman of the occasion, Adetunji Doherty, however said that a successful career in the pharma industry must be informed by interest, knowledge of strength and weaknesses, perseverance, knowledge and diligence.

Above all, Doherty said service to the people most motivate all practitioners, adding that all aspect of pharmaceutical practice is important to the country.

Executive Director, Technical Operations at Drugfield Pharmaceuticals Limited, Kehinde Adeyiga, informed the mentees, drawn from University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, that there were opportunities in the hospital practice, community practice and academics, with industrial practice standing out among others.

Adeyiga said that with career in production, there is greater job security, know-how on manufacturing, steady progress, opportunities in consultancy, international exposure and prospects of starting one’s own industry. He reiterated that one of the major challenges today is the dearth of young graduates that are willing to take over from aging professionals.

The trio of Dr. Arinola Joda, Modupe Oyawale and Olayinka Subair were unanimous that aspiring professionals must quit the habit of putting money first in their considerations. They urged them on the values of getting mentored, experience, diligence and competency, which would pay off than the school certificate.