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Jun162020 by PharmaTimesNo Comments

Drug Import: National Security and Self-sufficiency in Medicine Production in Nigeria

The novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted Nigeria’s longstanding vulnerability to national security risk over continued reliance on imports of pharmaceutical raw materials and finished products needs of the country. At the onset of global lockdown, the Indian government ordered its pharmaceutical companies to stop exporting 26 drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients, most of them antibiotics. Similarly, South Korea, Germany, Taiwan and others clamped down on exports of masks and other protective gear as well as diagnostic commodities over worries that their own supplies will fall short. Over one hundred of Nigerian health workers on the frontlines in the treatment and containment of COVID-19 in Nigeria were infected as a result of unavailability of personal protective equipment (PP

May222020 by PharmaTimesNo Comments

COVID-19: Experience Should Spur Health Sector Overhaul

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging the world has presented a compelling evidence to convince authorities in government to confront the reality that the nation’s health sector is grossly under-developed. In his broadcast to the nation on April 13, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that he had directed key ministers to liaise with Economic Sustainability Committee chaired by vice president Yemi Osinbajo and presidential advisory committee to fashion out the best way forward for the nation’s economy post-COVID-19. That pronouncement elicited expectations that the high powered committee would tap experiences so far acquired from coronavirus to make health sector overhaul a priority item on its deliberations. The health sector has obviously suffered severe setback as a res

Feb192020 by PharmaTimesNo Comments

Averting Possible Rise in Drug Costs

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), was on point recently when he raised the alarm over a possible increase in the cost of essential medicines in Nigeria. He observed that Nigeria’s inflationary trend, increase in VAT, and lack of incentives for local manufacturers of pharmaceutical products is the major factor that will make a spike in the cost of prescription and non-prescription medicines inevitable. We support Ohuabunwa’s submission and urge authorities in government not to ignore it because the consequences of sudden rise in the prices of medicines could be disastrous to public health. The main challenge of our country over the years has been the inability to ensure that our citizens, especially the rural dwellers, have access to basi

Oct182019 by PharmaTimes1 Comment

Tightening the Borders for a Healthier and More Virile Nigeria

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

Recently the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, joined voices with the discerning few who expressed support for the temporary border closure by the Nigerian government in its bid to control the ever present trans-border smuggling of prohibited goods including adulterated and substandard drugs into the country. While sharing his opinion with news hunters the emir conveyed his disappointment with the attitude of countries that share borders with Nigeria – for not helping the country in her quest to develop her economy as well as local products. “I always felt that if you really want to enforce laws that you have against smuggling, you need to close borders. “… You have goods coming in across the border using the port in Cotonou to avoid tax revenues in Lagos; so what happens is we don’t

Sep92019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments

As Pharmacy Stakeholders Brainstorm on Local Production

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

Concerned about huge medicine import into the country to the detriment of local manufacturing, stakeholders in pharmacy sub-sector on 20thAugust, 2019 held a roundtable and took pragmatic steps that could lead to a reversal of the trend. Indeed the Nigeria pharmaceutical sub-sector has huge potentials to exploit towards boosting her local production capacity but the political will and policy implementation keep dragging every effort to a state of inertia. The roundtable discussion which reportedly had in attendance critical stakeholders such as, Ministry of Health, PCN, PSN, NAFDAC, NIPRD, PMG-MAN, CBN, BOI, Nigeria Association of Pharmacists in the Academia, Raw Material Research and Development Council, United States Pharmacopoeia, Research, Documentation and Industrial Liaison Committ...

Aug132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments

A Deluge of Suicide by ‘Sniper’

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The rising cases of suicide acts linked to Sniper has unsettled many Nigerians regarding how to reduce these sad occurrences in our society. Widely used as pesticide in farms, the challenge with Sniper is in its affordability and accessibility to virtually anyone, and young Nigerians are exploiting it. The small bottle of 100ml is sold for about N500 in the open market thereby encouraging its acquisition by all and sundry. A catalogue of the sad development presents the shocking reality. On August 2, 2019, a 400 level female student of Department of English , Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife , Osun state, Opeyemi Dada, consumed Sniper and died allegedly over poor academic result. Similaly, on July 1, 2019 in Nassarawa State, a 34-year old Adeyemo Isaac, reportedly took sniper and died ...

Jul92019 by PharmaTimes9 Comments

As Pharmacists seek Inclusion in Administration of Drugs via Parenteral Routes

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The push for inject-able medication administration beyond immunization has increased and the momentum is building within the pharmacy profession across the world. This perhaps explains why pharmacists in Nigeria recently brought the idea on the front burner of professional discuss. The New Pharma Frontier, a social media platform of Licensed Nigerian Pharmacists for purposes of interaction on matters that affect their profession and career came alive recently when contributors to the topic “The Administration of Drugs via Parenteral Routes by Nigerian Pharmacists,” bared their minds with patriotic zest. No doubt the practice of pharmacy and the scope of pharmacy practice across the world have evolved significantly; the evolution according to experts has been driven by escalating costs in

Jun122019 by PharmaTimes1 Comment

No Rush to Marijuana Cultivation in Nigeria

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

A popular maxim says “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission.” The idea is that decisive action is better than risking delay while seeking approval. That’s the case with advocacy for legalisation of marijuana cultivation in Nigeria currently being promoted by a section of the Nigerian elite. Just because legalisation is happening in some countries around the world is no reason for Nigeria to jump hastily on the bandwagon. Ondo state Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu who stirred the hornet’s nest recently when he said that his state is set to tap into legal marijuana market under the supervision of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency had appealed to the Federal Government to permit his state to embark on marijuana cultivation in controlled plantations. Governor Ake

May72019 by PharmaTimes551 Comments

Emergence of State Health Insurance Schemes

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

Over the years, the failure of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to fulfill its primary objective of providing the required health insurance coverage for all Nigerians has compounded the fortunes of those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. A ray of hope that emerged through the approval of one percent from the Consolidated Revenue Fund by the Federal Government in 2018 budget remains the key to the provision of basic healthcare for all Nigerians irrespective of their financial status. The move, essentially, was to enable the funding of projects, programmes and policies towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria by 2025. The goal of the UHC, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is to ensure that all people and communities obtain he...

Apr82019 by PharmaTimes124 Comments

Beyond Inaugurating Cancer Centre in Lagos

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

On 9th February, this year, President Muhammadu Buhari officially commissioned an utra-modern cancer treatment centre in Lagos - executed through Public-Private-Partnership agreement by the Federal Government and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. The ceremony, according to President Buhari, represents a bold step by his administration to fulfill its promise of establishing one cancer centre per geo-polilical zone in the country. Revamping the nation’s health sector to provide long-term chronic care is very crucial and the concept of PPP is key to facilitating efficient and effective control of the deadly disease. However, setting up one cancer centre in nearly four years may not be the best of propositions to cover a country with a population of close to two hundred milli

Mar112019 by PharmaTimes164 Comments

New PCN Law – Long overdue

Editorial Opinion

The passage last year of the new Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Bill by the national assembly was long overdue even though it generated commendable reactions from stakeholders in the health sector. We believe that it is better late than never to have a law that will boost efforts aimed at sanitising the pharmacy services in the country. Before the passage of the bill, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), the body responsible for the regulation of pharmacy practice in the country operated like a lame duck due to the weaknesses in enforcing the Acts setting it up. But now it is expected that when the bill is signed into law by President Mohammadu Buhari, the PCN will be sufficiently empowered and adequately strengthened to deliver effectively on its mandate. Pharmacy practice in Nige...

Feb122019 by PharmaTimes282 Comments

Return of Lassa fever And the Need for Vigilance

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The report that there is fresh outbreak of Lassa fever should sound a note of warning to the Government and the people of Nigeria. As we have all learned, early action against any epidemic is absolutely critical to save lives. The virulence of Lassa fever is not in doubt. With over 50 deaths recorded in Ondo State as a result of Lassa fever outbreak, residents, as well as medical practitioners, are in panicky mood. It is worrisome that as at press time the epidemic disease has found its way into Plateau, Ebonyi, and most recently Edo state. The return of Lassa fever in the country, especially the pace of spread of the virus is a grim reminder that epidemics are a threat and that the only way to get this virus under control is through rapid response. It would be recalled that an outbr...

Jan92019 by PharmaTimes186 Comments

Time to Equip NAFDAC

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The Director General of National Agency for Foods and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye made a shocking revelation recently in Lagos when she said that 80 percent of her agency’s equipment is not working. Interestingly, she made the revelation while receiving members of the Senate Committee on Health who were in Lagos on a fact finding mission of state of affairs of federal health institutions located in Lagos state. The NAFDAC boss also used the opportunity of the occasion to inform her guests that the last time officials of the World Health Organisation visited NAFDAC Laboratory in Yaba, Lagos, the agency was scored zero by the global health watchdog. Prof. Adeyeye’s revelation is commendable and indicates that her administration is prepared to take the agency

Nov12018 by PharmaTimes283 Comments

Adherence to Professional Ethics, Panacea to Qualitative Healthcare in Nigeria

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The need for observance of ethical practices by healthcare professionals in Nigeria dominated discussions by experts during the 2018 edition of the World Pharmacists Day celebrations that held in Lagos recently. Various speakers who spoke on the theme, ‘Pharmacists: Your Medicine Experts’, identified unethical practices as one of the reasons why the nation’s health sector continues to falter after 58 years of Nigeria’s independence. President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, who was among the speakers, alerted the nation at the occasion when he said that professionals in health have crossed their legitimate sphere of practice by taking responsibilities that are outside of their core training. He wondered why healthcare professionals without training

Sep112018 by PharmaTimes423 Comments

NMA/ JOHESU Conflict: A Feverish Anticipation for Peace and Harmony

Editorial Opinion, NEWS

The recent indefinite nationwide strike embarked on in April by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has had its fair share of influence on the nation’s healthcare system. In the course of the unfolding events, it was suggested by some Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) state chapters that JOHESU was engaging in acts of sabotage in their health institutions. On the other hand, JOHESU members accused the medical doctors of deliberately scuttling the implementation of agreement the federal government had earlier entered with its members, including upward review of CONHESS. Over the years health watchers have observed the inner wrangling and somewhat mutual distrust going on in the health sector – from federal to the states levels. It has been no love lost between the medical doctors and