Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, PMG-MAN, has advised the Federal Government to prioritise local development in the pharmaceutical sector so as to generate increased internal revenue.
The group noted that by tapping into the local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing sector, government can significantly increase the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth of the country.
Chairman PMG-MAN, Okechukwu Akpa, gave the call while speaking at the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, PHN/ PMG-MAN 2017 forum with the theme “Improving Access to Medicines: The imperatives of Local Manufacturing and Effective Supply Chain management.”
Akpa disclosed that the nation’s pharm sector was “bedevilled with policy inconsistencies, CET and other unfavourable policies, inadequate access to Funding and Finance, lack of frameworks for Knowledge Transfer.”
He said, “With the 2016 Fiscal Policy ensures that local pharma company can satisfy National Consumption and the recent Presidential Executive Order encourages potential for exponential increase of local capacity and robust monitoring key to successful implementation.
“Prioritising development in the Pharma Manufacturing Sector can generate increased internal revenue for the Government, significant contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, predictable and reliable growth, Forex earnings from exports as well as the growth of related industries and sub-sectors.”
Akpa further noted that “Efficient and effective supply chain management remains an important building block of the health system, requiring specialized talents, expertise and innovations to improve availability of medical commodities as an enabler for optimal healthcare service delivery.
“While a well-functioning health system ensures equitable access to essential medical products, vaccines and technologies of assured quality, safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness, Nigeria’s healthcare system is laden with several underlying challenges ranging from limited adoption of private sector capabilities and expertise to advance supply chain system performance, sub-optimal stewardship in creating ecosystem for attracting private sector supply chain innovations and stimulating market development, complex, parallel and fragmented supply chain systems across different public health intervention programs as well as minimal harnessing and sharing of local evidence base and knowledge products to unlock sustainable supply chain solutions, to name but a few.”
He also called for the need to unlock private-public sector partnerships, and “catalysing development of local talent for supply chain management of medicines.”
According to Akpa, this will, “improve Nigerians’ access to medicines for conditions prevalent in the West Africa sub-region, lessen dependence on external factors for essential medicines and related health interventions, as well as enhance Research and Development capacity for the development of indigenous therapies and interventions for conditions prevalent to West Africa.”
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