The President, Nigeria Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientist in Americas, Dr Anthony Ikeme has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to develop and execute a blueprint for the economic development of the Pharmaceutical Industry in the country.
Ikeme made the call at the 23rd Annual National Conference of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria. According to him, “a long overdue blueprint has become more pressing following the devastation of the Corona Virus Pandemic. The pandemic, he added, had further exposed the inherent weaknesses in the nation’s health sector.
The lack of an actively executed National Strategy for Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical Economic sector development remains a great burden in the development of the sector.
The NAPPSA President asserted that Nigeria’s Pharma market is market for foreign product with almost total dependence on import from China and India with an estimated worth of 600 million dollars yearly. Adding that “we need to robustly and efficiently deploy all facets of our national human resources asset and machinery achieving our national pharmaceutical sector strategy” He called for commitment and bold step to ensure Nigeria develop a robust and globally competitive pharmaceutical sector.