Government must present a policy direction to develop the pharmaceutical industry – John Nwaiwu

Although he incorporated JB Pharmaceuticals Limited in 1997, the company did not commence operations until 2004 “so there would not be any form of conflict of interest’, according to him.

When asked whether he ever dreamt of becoming a pharmacist at his tender age, Dr. Nwaiwu recalled that after the Civil War very little was known about diseases and their causes. So, when his mother started suffering from diabetics, it was a completely strange illness at that point in time and nobody had any information on it. Sadly, her health condition worsened, one of her leg was decapitated and she eventually died. This incident became the turning point in Dr. Nwaiwu’s career choice as he vowed to know more about diseases, their causes and cure. Ultimately, he traveled overseas to study pharmacy.

Speaking about his motivation to the pharmacy profession, he praised his father who he described as an irredeemable advocate of western education who made sure all his children went to school, including the females among them contrary to general opinion at the time. My father was so passionate in his belief to that no human person can survive without education”, he noted.
After his education overseas and with the sad news of his father’s death, Dr. Nwaiwu returned to Nigeria. He decided to contribute his own quota to national development by taking up a teaching job in the department of Pharmacy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

“However, I still had the hunger to practice even though being a lecturer in those days is equivalent to being a judge. Nigeria was a near ‘paradise’; the environment was serene and conducive for research. People were able to take care of their families and their children were well trained. Yet, with my eye on teaching and nurturing people, I did not forget about the actual practice of my profession”, he recalled.
JB Pharma started by distributing drugs from local manufacturers thereby becoming a major distributor for a number of Nigerian pharmaceutical companies. After some time, it signed partnership agreement with some overseas pharmaceutical companies and commenced formulation of drugs according to official compendium. Subsequent upon the registration and approval by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the company began the production of pharmaceutical products. Currently, JB Pharma has 32 different products under its own brand name.

Commenting on the challenges in the sector, Dr. Nwaiwu stressed that “there would not be any success story in respect to the pharmaceutical business in Nigeria until the menace of counterfeiting and faking is decisively dealt with. Any product that has less active ingredient, or the one that does not have any active ingredient, or the one that has false active ingredient, or a product that is falsely packaged, is fake. Such product may also have no date of manufacture, expiration date, batch number, or name of the manufacturer”.

According to him, “most of the faked products are manufactured and imported from overseas. He lamented that “almost everything that has to do with adulteration, faking or counterfeiting is wrongly blamed on pharmacists. He quickly adduced the reason for this as he pointed out that only registered pharmacists register drugs, produce or import drugs, obtain license to open pharmacies, and administer or dispense drugs. However, this is not the case because greed and pecuniary benefits, or a gap in supply of a product in high demand create room for fakers”.
Dr. Nwaiwu stressed that “after taking an oath at graduation to adhere to the ethics of the profession, all pharmacists must face the task of combating counterfeiting. There is the need to keep asking questions and create more awareness about this menace. Stakeholders are trying but they need to do more. We must try and identify the leakages in the drug distribution chain in the country. In the same vein, the law enforcement agencies must be equal to the task by doing their work more efficiently than what we are seeing currently. In truth, NAFDAC licenses products and approves importation of foreign drugs, but the agency must be able to monitor the sales of these products.”
In conclusion, “the government has a statutory role and it must be seen to support all professions. The question is what is the input of the federal government in helping the pharmaceutical industry in the country? The government must come in terms of research and expand the financial capability of the sector.