Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa , the President, Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN), has said the pharmaceutical space has been invaded and infiltrated by interlopers and merchants of death who daily dispatch innocent Nigerians to their early graves.
He added that their duties as pharmacists had been gravely usurped, while the average Nigerian now obtain medicines from anywhere in the open market stalls, kiosks, intra and intercity buses and now in night clubs and bars.
Ohuabunwa lamented that Nigeria was facing an unmitigated incidence of drug misuse and drug abuse leading to untold morbidities and mortalities.
Ohuabunwa stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole on Thursday in his office.
He submitted that the association would collaborate with the minister to tackle the gross misuse and abuse of drugs by tightening control of medicines, empowering pharmacists to play their critical role as custodians of medicines and holding them accountable for every tablet or capsule or vial of injections produced or imported into the country.
He maintained that the disorderly and chaotic medicine supply system in the country must be repaired for the good of all.
The PCN President also sought support for local value addition, saying they must fight for National Health Policy to include the provision of 70% of the nation’s essential drug needs from local manufacturing.
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He said he was distressed that today, “we are producing less than 30%. And even within this poor 30%, only about 5% is true local input into local manufacturing.
“Most of the raw materials which include: excipients, flavourings, addictives are all imported. There is no Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) produced anywhere in Nigeria. Our next door neighbour, Ghana does.”
He called on research centres, especially NIPRD, to help produce local alternatives for the industry and ensure that locally produced drugs and medicaments are given priory in procurement of drugs by the public sector across the Nation.
Prof. Adewole, in his response, said health was not an independent responsibility of the Federal Government, but that the states were not helping matters.
On the issue of invasion, the minister said some of the pharmacists were at fault, adding that most of them give out their certificates and pictures to other people to establish pharmacies, even as he urged them to work on themselves and the issue of invasion to get rid of it.
