Nigeria eyes WHO certification for drug factories

{jathumbnail off}The Nigerian government has asked its pharmaceutical experts to help it meet standards that will allow it meet World Health Organisation requirements without which some drugs cannot be manufactured in Nigerian factories. Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists meeting in Abuja that Nigeria's lack of WHO prequalification was 'a current burning issue of international importance.'He said it hindered Nigerian local pharmaceutical industries 'from participating in global tenders due to poor capital base.''This in turn makes it difficult for the industries to meet up with the high expense associated with documentation, infrastructure and training requirements of the prequalification process as well as lack of technical expertise to meet up with the WHO prequalification requirements,' he noted.He added that the federal government demonstrated commitment to growing the sector with the approval of a N200 billion intervention from the Bank of Industry.The minister who was represented by the ministry's director for food and drugs Mary Okpeseyispoke as the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in America, NAPPSA, convened a summit of stakeholders in Abuja.Good manufacturing practice'We do not have a WHO-certified pharmaceutical company in this country,' said NAPPSA president Nnedum Iheme. 'Our goal is to make it possible to have WHO-certified pharmaceutical company so that we will be able to participate in the Global Funds.'He added, 'There are monies out there ' but our manufacturers cannot tap into that. Why' Because we are not GMP [Good Manufacturing Practice] or WHO-certified.'At present, only South Africa, Uganda and Morocco are thought to have the requirements in Africa, noted Dr Paul Orhii, director-general of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.The agency estimates that 70% of essential medicines consumed in Nigeria are imported.Orhii says availability of essential medicines like antimalarials for Nigeria's 150 million population must be considered an issue of national security.The absence of a WHO certification for good manufacturing practice means even artemisinin tablets must be produced in factories abroad and imported into Nigeria.Iheme of NAPPSA, which boasts nearly 5,000 members, has said it is committed to a roadmap to transform the pharmaceutical sector, which he says is still 'untapped,' through collaboration with every stakeholder in research, production, education, advocacy and capacity building, essentially making Nigeria a hub of pharmaceutical activity in Africa.'We know there are problems, but we can overcome those problems,' Iheme said at the summit.He said pharmaceutical distribution was NAPPSA's 'major concern' at present. He promised that NAPPSA could help Nigeria fight fake drugs by tracing drug movement from point of manufacture through distribution and to patients.
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