How economic woes cripple drug industries, by BOF

The Board of Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (BFPSN) has decried the impact of the present economic woes on practice of pharmacy even as they said it has cripples local pharmaceutical industries.

The PSN Fellows during the 2016 Mid-year meeting/award dinner of the Board of Fellows at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festival Mall, Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos, said the economy situation of Nigeria has seen many investors leave the shores of the country.

The meeting was titled “The Present Economy Impact on Pharmacy Practice.” The pharmacists said as a matter of urgency, there is need to redeem the pharmaceutical industries even as they rallied for government’s support to rescue the impending doom about to befall the local manufacturers.

Chairman of the occasion and President of Manufactures Association of Nigeria (MAN), Frank Udemba Jacobs, said: “Manufactures are facing a lot of challenges especially in respect of sourcing of Foreign Exchange. For instant the after the regulation of foreign exchange in the parallel market, people that have already opened letter of credit and Form M at the old rate of N197 to N199 are now forced to take the loss by financing those letters at N283 to N285, and that is a huge lost to most of our members. Upon the fact we are not getting enough foreign exchange.

“We think the whole problem is from the government they need to find a way to make dollar available and give those dollar to the real sector of the economy. It is true they don’t have enough but with the little they have, they should give to the real sector of the economy so they can generate employment.”

President of PSN, Ahmed Yakassi, said the event was to celebrate the pharmacist who excelled in the field. He added: “Talking of the impact of the current economic situation in pharmacy. The issue of forex to manufacturers is a serious issue even to importers of finished products and raw materials. That is why we are advocating that government should make pharmaceutical practice a priority issue. Drug issues should be taken as security issue. The industries are looking for materials to produce locally but they cannot source the forex. We plead to the government to make the pharmaceutical sector a priority area. Whenever we go for the letter of credit to be financed, it will be approved. They should patronize made in Nigeria pharmaceutical product so that the pharmaceutical industry can survive and equally produce to full capacity.”

Yakasai said that the government in the ‘national health policy’ agrees to patronise locally manufactured drugs. “With the change mantra that it is achievable,” he said.
Chairman, Board of Fellows (BOF), Barrister Chinedu Mordi, said the event was set to map out strategy on how to improve on the goals of the society. He said it is the conscience of the PSN to make sure the society do what it ought to do.

Mordi added: “We have cooperate social responsibility, we encourage scholarships, we encourage people to be serious with their work and we give prices to all the best graduating students in the 18 faculties of pharmacy in this country. We also sponsor research in various fields of pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy practice. That is how we feel we can give back to the society in which he benefited from.”

Mordi frowned at the allegations of the young pharmacist not being well trained saying: “Older pharmacists have been compelled to world class. For the upcoming ones, with the regulations of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), standards are not being compromised and the training of the pharmacist is as it is ought to be.”

On the part of the government the Chairman said: “The government has a lot to do as long as pharmacy practice is concerned. We have many laws regulating the practice of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and drug distribution. Unfortunately the government that made this law does not have the political will to implement it. This is where we call on the government to straighten the regulatory bodies and review the pharmacy laws that have gone out of place and do not apply to the present day practice.

“We need a repeal of these law and strength the law enforcement agents, and with that there will be sanity in practice of pharmacy and drug distribution. This might not be apparent now because the harm being done by this non-regulatory practice of pharmacy will manifest in various ways. For example people go on armed robbery because they have easy access to drugs that they should not have. This is one of the shortcomings of not implementing the law.”

Senator Mathew Urhoghide, who believed that training of high level man power will go a long way said: “It is important government will do investments in the area of training and after training, create jobs. We do not have enough pharmacists in Nigeria. As we speak I do not think we have enough pharmacist in Nigeria. We do not have up to 500,000 pharmacists in Nigeria, can you imagine what that mean. It means we are running shortage of manpower. Those that are trained, government are not talking of job creation. Government should embark on job creation because many of them are not employed.”

The Senator added: “Government still has whole lot to do. Government should put proper policies in place. Then training and create employment for them to discharge services to Nigerians. Nigerians are in dire need of pharmaceutical services.”

Urhoghide also implored the oil and gas sector to support pharmaceutical industries in Nigeria to achieve the required result, but he believed this would come as government policies.