Following the closure of a British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and other pharmaceutical companies in the country, the President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof. Cyril Odianose Usifoh has urged the Federal Government (FG) to start the production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).

It also charged the FG to make drugs affordable and accessible for citizens.

According to Usifoh, if API are produced in the country, it will create foreign exchange and also create jobs for the youths.

Usifoh gave this charge at the launching of Pharmaconex and MedLab West Africa by Informa Market in Lagos.

It aims to unite industry leaders from the pharmaceutical and lab equipment industries, shaping the future of the industries in Nigeria.

He said the only way medicines can be affordable is to embark on the production of most medicines.

“I am happy that the FG has come down with the policy to increase local production. Increasing local production is a policy, but meeting stakeholders to make sure this come to workable is another point, the industry presently has difficulty in accessing forests, they have bad roads, they find it difficult to evacuate their medicines to the appropriate places in addition, energy is a problem, they run fuels and diesels selling at over N1,000, you don’t expect somebody who produce a particular medicine to sell at a loss. and these are all factors,” he said.

He also charged the pharmacies to look inward and make sure medicines are at the reach of the average Nigerians.

The National Chairman of the Association of Industrial Pharmacy of Nigeria, Ken Chinedu Onuegbu said Nigeria needs to focus on local production of essential pharmaceutical products, urging the leaders to allow professionals take care of certain things.

He noted that if professionals take up the position, things will be in proper shape.

“We need a lot of uplifting, we need a lot of encouragement, capacity building, we need a lot of support particularly from government sector, the private sector is doing whatever they can to drive the economy, but without the government coming in to render help, things will be a little bit difficult,” Onuegbu stated.

Group exhibition director, Informa Markets Egypt for Pharmaconex West Africa, Mostapha Khalil said they want to support the government in localisation of the pharmaceutical sectors and to promote the pharma sector in Nigeria and Africa.