By Doris Obinna and Henry Uche
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on the federal and state governments to make available funds for research and investments in the pharmaceutical industry, “if Nigeria’s health is paramount to them.”
A communique by its president, Tanko Ibrahim Ayuba and national secretary, Gafar ‘Lanre Madehin, insisted: “To transform healthcare in Nigeria, there must be innovative, value-driven care that benefits patients, providers and the entire healthcare system, as to actualize Universal Health Coverage with Pharmacists.
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“We applaud the Executive Order of President Bola Tinubu on the pharmaceutical sector as it has a tendency to enhance medicine security if well implemented and enforced. We urge the Presidency to give appropriate directive to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Custom Service to facilitate seamless implementation of the Executive Order in the ultimate public interest.”
It called for an enhanced regulatory framework that places a premium on Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) collaborations with other law enforcement agents to cleanse and rid the pharmaceutical value chain of drug fakers as a prelude to boosting local drug manufacturing which will position the pharmaceutical industry to contribute significantly to National GDP.
“We encourage President Bola Tinubu to wade into the limiting factor of bad politics of exclusion in Nigerian’s health sector by directing the National Primary Health Development Agency to tap into the potentials of community based practices of the respective health professionals; by maximally utilizing the high cross mobility and proximity to consumers of health to engage them in the totality of immunization endeavors, if our country will ever reverse its embarrassing negative health indices.
“We extend hands of fellowship to Veterinarians and strongly urged them to embrace international best practices which places similar and commensurate safety values on the use as well as administration of human and animal drugs by respecting existing norms which are validated by court orders and judgment.”
PSN admonished Director General, Prof Christiana Adeyeye, to show better commitment to rules of engagement with stakeholders in the profession and industry in the areas of skyrocketing tariffs and an array of contentious policies which have a propensity to inflict more hardship on consumers of health in Nigeria.
The pharmacists lamented that the continuous delay in inaugurating the PCN which is a specialized regulatory Professional Council with a mandate that includes regulating and controlling of pharmaceutical premises in Nigeria was beginning to take a calamitous toll on the health of Nigerians as the number of unregistered premises from the data available to the Research and Development office of the PSN has soared from an unimaginable below 2 million before the Council was dissolved, to 2,557,143 as at the end of September 2024.
“We must inform the federal government that vital disciplinary action has ceased at PCN for over two years which encourages indiscipline to flourish. Therefore for the umpteenth time, we call on the Prof. Ali Pate CON led Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and Social Welfare to immediately inaugurate the PCN before we record avoidable unmitigated disasters while the relevant authorities in the ministry can continue consultation with the PSN hierarchy on any grey area that has delayed the inauguration of PCN.”
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