Guardian

IF medicine must be safe and affordable in the country, the Federal Government must ensure conducive-environment for local manufacturers, community pharmacists have said.

And to start with, the government must implement its policy at reducing tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products and rates on credit facilities.

The pharmacists, under the aegis of Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), said these measures among others, were necessary to encourage local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products at cheaper rate.

National president of the body, Olufemi Adebayo, at an event to herald the 2013 edition of the ACPN national conference, noted that drugs are expensive in the country because most of them were imported, and where they are manufactured locally, majority of the chemical products used were sourced from overseas.

More so, erratic power supply in the country has not helped cost, often borne by end-users, because some of the drugs had to be kept in cold chain, which accounts for huge expenses on power by the pharmacy.

“We know that if power supply is regular and the drugs produced locally, cost of drugs will come down. We have abundance of resources that we are not using to facilitate local production.

“One of the other ways to help local production is through funding. The current 23 per cent interest rate on bank loans is not helping anybody. If aviation, agriculture and the entertainment industry can get intervention fund from the government, how much more the pharmaceutical sector,” he said.

Chairman, Lagos ACPN, Yinka Aminu, added that government must implement its policy at reducing tariffs on imported medical products to make the environment more conducive.

He observed that though government had reduced tariffs to five per cent, but the relevant agencies still insist on 27 per cent per cent tariffs. “Their usual excuse is that the policy has not been gazette, so the 27 per cent rate is still charged. Meanwhile, in some countries, tariff on medicine is zero per cent.

“These countries realize that the manufacturer of drugs is taking a big risk. The man that made My Pikin here had manufactured good products that impacted healthcare in the country before My Pikin saga. He is late now and the company is gone.

“When the environment is not conducive for genuine manufacturers, we are like encouraging fakers. We have the potential to make the country self sufficient if and only if there is political will,” he said.

To promote safe medicine, National Secretary of the association, Koolchap Olatunji, added the need for harmonisation in the healthcare system and the principle of non-interference in roles assigned to each practitioner by training.

Olatunji berated one-too-many cases where doctors prescribe and dispense drugs, or a hospital of 20 to 30 beds without a pharmacist to dispense. “This is barbaric and unacceptable. This is only possible in Nigeria.”

“We need to correct all of these by fostering harmony among the practitioners. On our part, we are coming up with the right ACPN insignia, to tell the public where to get genuine healthcare products in the community. There is difference between a local chemist and a pharmacy and the public should be on the look out for the pharmacists’ emblem.”

The national conference holds from June 3 to 7, 2013 at Calabar, Cross River State. Theme of the conference is ‘Safe medicine for Nigerians: Community pharmacists’ perspective.’