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Tag: Pharmacists

  • Pharmacists endorse N50b Oyo Health Fund

    Pharmacists endorse N50b Oyo Health Fund

    The Oyo State chapter of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has expressed support for the establishment of Oyo State N50 billion Health Endowment Fund.

    The state’s PSN Chairman, Abiodun Ajibade, expressed the council’s support for the fund while handing over drugs estimated at N344,000 to the state at the weekend.

    Ajibade said the council provided the drugs for use in state’s and local governments’ hospitals as well as health centres across the state.

    The PCN urged the state government to recruit more pharmacists for hospitals to boost healthcare delivery.

    Ajibade, who handed the drugs to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan, said the gesture was aimed at reducing the money the state government spent on providing drugs to its hospitals and primary health centres.

    He said: “I will like to reiterate the need to employ more pharmacists to man many of the health facilities in the state. There is also the need for refurbishing and face-lifting many of the pharmacies in the hospitals. Our donation of drugs worth N344,000 today is to make a statement that the PSN in Oyo State is solidly behind the N50 billion state’s Health Endowment Fund that was launched recently.”

    The donated drugs comprise antacids to cough syrups, analgesics, vitamins, antibiotics and bottles of blood tonic.

    The PCN chairman urged the state government to give more attention to the refurbishing of many pharmacies in hospitals across the state.

    Adeduntan said primary health centres, particularly those in rural local government areas and local council development areas, would benefit from the distribution of the drugs.

  • Pharmacists to Nigerians: check health status, stop stigmatisation

    Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) President, Ahmed I. Yakasai, has urged Nigerians to check their health status, stop stigmatisation against HIV/AIDS patients and show love to  them.

    Yakasai stated this at this year’s World AIDS Day.

    Quoting the UNAIDS, Yakassai said last year, Nigeria had 220,000 new HIV infections and 160,000 AIDS-related deaths.

    ‘’There were 3,200,000 people living with HIV in 2016, among which 30 percent were accessing antiretroviral therapy. Among pregnant women living with HIV, 32 percent were accessing treatment or prophylaxis to prevent transmission of HIV to children. An estimated 37,000 Children were newly infected with HIV due to mother-to child transmission. Among people living with HIV, approximately 24 percent had suppressed viral loads.

    “The Key populations most affected by HIV in Nigeria are: Sex workers, with an HIV prevalence of 14.4 percent; Gay men and other men who have sex with men, with an HIV prevalence of 23 percent and people who inject drugs, with an HIV prevalence 3.4 percent,” he added.

    Yakasai said everyone, regardless of who they are or where they live, has a right to health, which is also dependent on adequate sanitation and housing, nutritious food, healthy working conditions and access to justice.

    He said: “The right to health is the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This includes the right of everyone, including people living with and affected by HIV, to the prevention and treatment of ill health, to make decisions about one’s own health and to be treated with respect and dignity and without discrimination.”

    He explained that the #myrighttohealth campaign focused on the right to health, which explored the challenges people.

  • Obi charges pharmacists on national devt 

    Former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has commended pharmacists for their efforts and contributions towards the health sector.

    He urged them to do more towards self-sufficiency in the raw materials required for production in the industry as well as finished goods needed by the nation.

    Obi was speaking on Weathering the storm of economic downturn: now and beyond at the 2017 annual dinner of the Board of Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in Abuja.

    Reviewing the ups and downs in the industry, Obi submitted a lot still needed to be done.

    He said it was not cheering that countries like India and China, once at par with Nigeria in development of the pharmaceutical industry, had all recorded phenomenal growth while Nigeria, buffeted by adverse environment, did not record appreciable progress.

    Comparing the contribution of the industry to the economic growth of countries under reference, the ex-governor said: “Nigeria’s GDP is about $400 billion and the pharmaceutical industry contributes 0.25- 0.30 percent, which is about $1 – 1.2 billion.

    “The GDP of China is about $12 trillion and its pharmaceutical industry contributes 1% – 1.25 percent, being $120-150 billion while the GDP of India is about $2.3 trillion with its pharmaceutical industry contributing about 2 percent ($40 billion).”

    He urged the nation’s pharmaceutical industry to strive hard towards attaining at least 1percent status of her country’s GDP, which would equal about $4 billion dollars.

    Revealing local manufacturers covered only 20percent of the nation’s needs with virtually all the raw materials being imported, he charged them to seek ways to increase local production with local inputs above 50 percent by the year 2030 when Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) will be completing.

    Obi called on them to push further by studying whatever magic China and India did to get to where they are today.

  • Pharmacists laud Fed Govt, M&B on vaccine production

    •Seeks ExpeditedMedicines’ Access Programme (E-MAP)

    The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) has praised the Federal Government for supporting local production of vaccines.

    The Federal Ministry of Health and May & Baker (M&B) have entered into partnership on vaccines production in the country.

    In a statement, PMG-MAN Executive Secretary, Dr Obi Peter Adigwe, said the partnership was the most sustainable and effective approach to ensuring national security and self-sufficiency in this critical area.

    Adigwe said: “Local medicines’ manufacturers in Nigeria have long been associated with the production of high quality, affordable medicines. It is on record that Nigeria still has the biggest cluster of World Health Organisation (WHO) certified companies in Africa, and incidentally, May & Baker is one of them.

    “Local medicines’ manufacturers are also at the forefront of innovative and contextual solutions to local healthcare issues, such as this commendable partnership that you have initiated. This is evidenced by our robust and comprehensive engagement with a wide range of policymakers and stakeholders”.

    Adigwe further canvassed the Expedited Medicines’ Access Programme (E-MAP), a proposed collaborative contractual partnership between the health ministry and local manufacturers.

    He said the E-MAP was in line with the administration’s vision and aspirations aimed at providing affordable, high quality medicines in a sustainable and cost efficient way.

    Adigwe said the programme design involved combining innovative manufacturing practices with contextual logistics and supply chain management that would achieve effective, cost efficient and timely provision of high quality medicines.

    He drew the attention of the Health Minister, Prof Isaac Adewole, to Acting President ‘Yemi Osinbajo’s Executive Order on local content in public procurement mandates to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to give preference to local manufacturers.

    Adigwe stressed that Osinbajo specified locally manufactured medicines in Section 4F and the need to patronise them extensively.

    He said it was on account of this that his association was appealing to the health ministry to begin the relevant processes for the implementation of E-MAP. He added that the implementation will not only grow the capacities of local manufacturers, but also increase the possibility of job creation.

    The proposed vaccine production has been on hold since 1991, but was reactivated and upgraded to establish a company called Bio-vaccines LTD, which will be jointly owned by the Federal Government and May & Baker Plc.

    At the signing ceremony by the Federal Government and May & Baker Plc, last month, Adewole said it would further secure lives since the production of vaccines was now considered a security issue.

    He said: “We have considered vaccines as a security issue, it is not only health but we need to consider the security of all Nigerians particularly our children. So, with this agreement, we will be able to produce those command vaccines and from 2021 and beyond, every other vaccine that is necessary will also be out on board for administration to Nigerians”.

  • Pharmacists seek end to drug importation

    Pharmacists seek end to drug importation

    A call has been made for an end  to drug importation. Besides, government  has been urged to provide  an enabling environment for pharmacists to practise their trade. These were the demands  of participants at a worshop  at the 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria at the Ball Room of the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja. It was a departure from the norm. The meeting advocated a shift from 70:30 ratios in importation/manufacturing in pharmaceutical products to 30:70 indigenous manufacturing/importation.

    Under the theme: ‘Growing the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry for greater economic impact’, the  gathering explored how the sector could move from near collapse to vibrancy.

    Taking the bull by the horn, the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Alhaji Ahmed Yakassai said government should provide the enabling environment for pharmacists to practise  their profession, “it has been sundry said at different fora that PSN is the leading highly organised professional body in Nigeria. We have professional pharmacists whose products have even been accepted by the World health organisation when it comes to navel care of a new born baby. But the environment is not friendly at all for one to practise maximally.”

    Citing an example, Yakassai said the vaccine manufacturing plant lying fallow at the medical Compound, Yaba, Lagos, is a big waste, “when there are professional pharmacists across the country that can work there to produce vaccine for the optimal use in the western African region.

    “The company that is bidding for its operation had been on it for over a decade, yet the government is not letting go. It is high time government trusted us indigenous pharmacists in having a meaningful and robust public-Private-partnership.”

    The key note speaker, CEO, Business School Netherland, Nigeria, Lere Bale said the summary is for teaching curriculum to be redesigned to meet with modern exigencies in pharmacy practice saying, “a pharmacist right from school should be trained in entrepreneurship. Nothing stops a pharmacist in collaborating by fusing his energy with others to create a product from the raw materials available in our society.  China, Japan and even Ghana are moving up in their drug demands and supply by tapping into the raw materials they have in their countries. You may call those natural products neutriceuticals but it is healing their societies. Nigeria is richer in flora and fauna, it is high time we looked inward.”

    He said educational structure should be planned to marry academia with industry so as to activate production of the bulk materials, “we may rename it Green pharmacy, and this can thrive on collaboration. So the tripod will be balanced- Academia, industry and government,” said Bale.

    Gbenga Falabi, the Chairman, NAIP, said pharmacists are trained to solve problems and the time is now for them  to dissect the Federal Government national policy so as to create a positive attrition for prosperity for Nigerians, leading to significant growth of the Nigerian pharmacy industry.

    “As experts we called on pharmacists to stop importing finished pharmaceutical products and marketing same in the country, such an action kills innovation and skill involved in the compounding of formulas to solve health challenges. Moreso, they are unduly expensive due to FOREX. We want to rescue our country, profession and healthcare system,” said Falabi.

    The chairman, Conference Planning Committee, Michael Heavens, said at the moment the local manufacturing arm of the industry’s output is 30 percent of all medicine being distributed in Nigeria while pharmaceutical imports account for about 70 percent, “We are no longer comfortable with that. We need to quickly arrest this or else the future of industrial pharmacists will go down the drain. This is what informed the decision of the association’s theme, for this 20th Annual National Conference.  Research and development are the life source of the pharma industry and we want to encourage our colleagues, especially the marketers to move from outsourcing of drugs overseas to local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.”

    Heavens added: “This transition, in our assessment could be the country’s pharma industry most significant contribution to inclusive growth, employment generation, and wealth creation in the country. The quick intervention of life-saving drugs in critical situations may mean the difference between life and death. And the local capacity to produce such is already established, however scaling up in capacity is the new challenge International Finance Corporation is coming to discuss at the conference with the need to begin to incentivise local production by government. We the pharmacists are saying the country cannot continue to rely on importation; rather it is high time, as experts, that self-sufficiency is attained.”

  • Reps order ministry, pharmacists body to eradicate quackery

    • Society advises members on registration renewal

    The House of Representatives has  mandated the Federal Ministry of Health and the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to close all unregistered pharmaceutical shops and prosecute their owners.

    There is anxiety over quacks’infiltration of the value chain of pharmacy.This has resulted in increased fake drugs.

    In a statement, the House said it acknowledged the various pharmaceutical shops and the scope of their practice as well as the peculiar needs of each in terms of manpower, equipment and premises specification, expressing concern that some chemist shops are in some locations and buildings which lack basic facilities and, in many cases, are manned by laymen.

    “It is also common in cities and villages to see drugs displayed for sales in public places. Such public places include motor parks, open drug markets among others,” the House noted.

    Expressing worry that some “spiritual and healing homes masquerading as worship centres or charity homes operate freely as drugs and medicines dispensaries, while some local manufacturers of drugs and medicines use all sorts of rickety vehicles to advertise and sell their drugs and medicines”, the House noted that these unprofessional ways of warehousing, distributing and dispensing of drugs and medicines serve as channels for the infiltration of quacks into the pharmacy profession and a major challenge to public health.

    “The infiltration of the pharmaceutical practice by unqualified persons and the attendant unprofessional services being rendered by these people have resulted to the death of countless number of innocent Nigerians, not counting the economic losses due to the supply and purchase of fake, expired and unwholesome drugs and medicine”, the House lamented.

    The House mandated the committees on health institutions, and healthcare services headed by Hon Abbas Tajudeen, representing Zaria Federal Constituency to ensure compliance.

    PCN Registrar, Elijah Mohammed expressed gratitude to the House, saying the resolution came at a time the Council stepped up its enforcement. He acknowledged that the House’s position would strengthen the Council’s resolve to flush out the quacks and help to restore normalcy to pharmacy practice.

    Also, the PSN has urged its members to renew their yearly registration with the PCN.

    According to its President, Alhaji Ahmed I. Yakasai, PSN and PCN have put in place a  system to quicken the process.

    He said the procedures would entail all pharmacists and pharmaceutical firms fulfilling the requirements of regularising their documents, before they were issued their Clearance Certificates by their state branches.

    ‘’The Clearance Certificates will subsequently be used to obtain Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) scratch cards to proceed with registration formalities,’’ he added.

    He said they would pay a building fee of N5, 000 as ordered by PSN.

    He noted that at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of PSN, the National Executive Council NEC directed that the the body should claim its Pharmacy House in Victoria Island, Lagos State and all its properties in Lagos and Abuja.

    Yakasai enjoined pharmacists to pay their practicing fees, warning: “No registered person shall practise as a pharmacist in any year unless he has paid to the Council in respect of that year, the appropriate practising fee which shall be due every January.”

    He said it was important to inform members of the consequences of defaulting.

  • Pharmacists Council insists on licensing patent medicine dealers

    •’We ‘re not against regulations but patent dealers’

    The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has insisted that the patent medicine dealers, also known as “chemists”, must come under its regulations. The Council said those without its licence would be treated as criminal.

    But the patent medicine dealers under the umbrella body of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED) said it was not against regulation; rather, that PCN’s scope of operation should be expanded to reflect their relevance.

    At its First National Summit, NAPPMED National President, Prince Joel Odoh, said what his members wanted from the government and its regulatory body is a dialogue on the expansion of work that the group should be allowed to do, “for instance, the current PCN regulation guiding the operations of NAPPMED does not allow members to treat certain diseases like diarrhoea. This is a big shortcoming that must be addressed”.

    Odoh said: “Some of the issues we are dealing with have to do with licensing. We don’t have to deceive ourselves- the license PCN is giving the patent dealers does not cover all our operations. That license does not cover treatment of diarrhoea and headache, even for those in the rural areas where serious medical care is urgently required, we can’t give First Aid. NAPPMED is not afraid of regulation but is averse to limiting of its operation, is inimical to its members’ existence.”

    Odoh called for a discussion with the regulatory body.

    He stressed that with over 950,000 members, the group should be given some recognition.

    “Our request is not out of place, we need to be recognised more than before as the first point of contact by patient especially in the rural areas of the country. Our members need to be encouraged to attend continuous educational trainings that will enhance their knowledge in drugs and patient handling.

    “In the area of finance, I plead with the Federal Government to deliberately structure financial assistance to us to enable us increase our purchasing capital which will also be beneficial to the less privileged among us, so we can serve Nigerians better, as we would now be able to take more stock.” he said.

  • Pharmacists urge govt to sanction quacks

    There is need to flush out quackery from medical practice of in Nigeria, in order to protect lives, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has said.

    The National Chairman of ACPN, Dr Albert Kelong Alkali made the call following the reported case of Steven Johnson syndrome in Kano, which claimed the life of lady after she took drigs prescribed by a quack a pharmacist.

    Dr. Kelong said there was need to educate people to purchase drugs from pharmaceutical outfits with green cross emblem and unique registration number.

    He lamented that patent medicine stores have no right to sell drugs but can assist only to give pain relief medicine in a community where there is no pharmacist.

  • Pharmacists canvass mentoring to boost practice

    The Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) have stressed the need for mentoring of pharmacy students on career choices to develop their profession.

    Its members spoke at this year’s Young Pharmacists Mentoring Day in Lagos with the theme: Aligning career path towards emerging trends in pharmaceutical practice.

    Chairman on the occasion Mr Adetunji Doherty said there was confusion about how students choose careers after university.

    He said young students or pharmacists would turn out well when they are guided by experienced persons in their profession.

    “Studying as a pharmacy student is different from working as a pharmacist. This is because young pharmacists would be asked to put into practice what they have learnt,” he said.

    Doherty said there are various disciplines in pharmacy, such as hospital, academic, industry/production, community, and sales and marketing, among others, adding that students should choose the area they have flair for.

    Doherty, who imports medicines, said he has been doing his business for more than 20 years, adding: “You have to know your strength and weaknesses”.

    NAIP’s National Chairman, Mr Gbenga Falabi, said pharmacy allows for mentoring and, as such, can help young pharmacy students to gravitate towards the industry.

    He said the industry requires skills and expertise, adding: “But the goal is that pharmacy thinks about the people and how you can serve them”.

    Falabi said a single mistake in the granulation of acute ingridients can make investors lose their money.

    “This is why NAIP is trying to build capacity of young pharmacists in industrial pharmacy,” he said.

    He said there was the need to generate interest in sales and marketing as well as production aspect of pharmacy because they are also important to the profession.

    Technical Production, Drugsfield Pharmaceuticals Ltd Executive Director, Mr Ade Kehinde said pharmacy should ensure availability of efficacious drugs and medicines.

    He charged them to have a vision, adding that this would make them go the right way in their career path.

    Kehinde said they should set their goals and how to achieve them.

    He listed some of the benefits of pharmacy as job security, independence and steady progress.

    Some challenges, he said, are lack of infrastructure, power and fund.

  • ‘Appoint pharmacists as NAFDAC DG’

    ‘Appoint pharmacists as NAFDAC DG’

    To ensure greater efficiency of foods and drug control, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), has urged the Federal Government to appoint pharmacists as Director General of National Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)

    The chairman of ACPN), Dr Albert Kelong Alkali, made the call during a press briefing held on Wednesday at the national secretariat of the body in Lagos.

    He said: “The need to place a pharmacist as NAFDAC’s DG is to ensure   proper measurement of numerous illegal pharmaceutical premises and patient medicine stores scattered all over the 36 states and Abuja .

    “The unprecedented increase in the number of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products all over the country was as a result of the Open Drug Market (ODM) that the regulators are shying away from closing.”

    He urged regulatory agencies to be proactive in the discharge of their duties in other to contain some of the problems facing the pharmaceutical sector.

    “We have regulatory issues to look into because there are two regulatory bodies that shape our practices. The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria and NAFDAC which is empowered to regulate the product while the council regulate the profession.

    “ ACPN urged the federal government to reconstitute the board of the council and the appointment of the new Director General of NAFDAC because the agency is very key to the administration of pharmacists for prevention of unethical practice. Recent happenings in pharmaceutical sector indicate that these two agencies need to redouble their effort to be able up meet up with the proliferation of illegal premises environment and also the preponderance of fake and substandard drugs . ACPN is expecting the new NAFDAC DG to transform the pharmaceutical sector into a multi- trillion naira sector that would create jobs for thousands of Nigerians.