Agha Ibiam
31 October 2006
Lagos — With the turn of the century, the global community has recognised that basic health is a prerequisite for sustainable development. Perhaps, more than anything else, three diseases stands as barriers to quality of life for the world's most disadvantaged, threatening the very foundations of entire economies. These diseases are expanding, threatening new regions and potentially undermining the welfare of the entire world.
Having suffered a great deal of economic and human resources in the past decades, the Global Fund was created to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating disease and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need. As a partnership between government, civil society, the private sector and affected communities, the Global Fund represents an innovative approach to international health financing.
The Global Fund provides grant to locally developed programmes to prevent and treat AIDS, TB and malaria. But back home, following the clarion call made by President Olusegun Obasanjo to local pharmaceutical industry to produce 70 per cent of the nation's need for essential medicines by 2007, most organisations however, heeded to that call.
One of such organisation that quickly went into action is Emzor Pharmaceutical Nigeria Limited, Lagos. The burden of malaria in Nigeria from a statistical data released by the company during the launch of Emzor Disunate and anti-retroviral range in Abuja, revealed that 60 per cent are out-patients, 30 per cent are of childhood mortality, 25 per cent of infant mortality, and while 48 per cent are prevalence among pregnant women and eleven per cent accounts for maternal deaths. A child, the paper said dies every 30 seconds due to malaria attack.
In 1987, ten years after the birth of Emzor, the organisation launched the first attack against malaria. And when the Federal Government launched the Roll Back Malaria initiative in 2000, during the time of Prof. Alphosus Nwosu as the then Minister of Health, Emzor was there and was part of the African Heads of States summit that same year.
Driven by passion to give the best to the people, the organisation again diversified into the production of maldox in 2002, and in 2003, produced another drug, all in giving malaria a hot chase, and recently, diasunate, an ACTs combination, which the current weapon against malaria.
During the product launch, in which the Chief Medical Director, National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Z. Ajuwon, was the chairman of the occasion, President Obasanjo, represented by Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, revealed that the economic loss arising from malaria, is put at about N132 billion. This he said covers treatment cost, transport to treatment source, loss of man-hours, absenteeism from schools and farms and other indirect costs. He said the administration has embarked on various health interventions, including the National Health Insurance Scheme, which was designed to directly impact on the health status and well being of the people.
Obasanjo at the occasion challenged major players in the nation's pharmaceutical industry to recommit themselves to the production of effective, affordable and easily accessible drugs for the treatment of not only malaria, HIV/AIDS, but also tuberculosis and other major diseases. He said the actualisation of the health sector goals, can only materialise if all stakeholders in the nation's health sector are willing and committed to productive partnership with government.
He however, said the product launch is symbolic as it marks a milestone in Nigeria's contribution to the global effort in the fight against two scourges of malaria and HIV/AIDS. Nigeria he said, has consistently worked towards keeping world attention focused on the challenges of malaria and HIV/AIDS. The Roll Back malaria programme was an initiative designed to improve malaria control in the context of the reforms, which the administration initiated in the health sector.
"The launch of a new anti-malaria drug is compliant with the World Health Organisation (WHO) policy and the country's current National Treatment Policy, which is a classic example of the pro-active roles that the private sector can play in partnering with government to actualise our global, regional and national objectives in healthcare delivery," Obasanjo said.
He said the locally produced fixed dose ACT anti-malaria drug is being launched alongside Emzor's range of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV). The gesture according to him is a further indication of the company's commitment to joining in the various fights to reverse and eventually halt the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country.
According the Lambo, the event was a significant landmark achievement, spotlighting Nigeria's pharmaceutical industry as a dominant player in the nation's economic landscape. "It is a warm-hearted response to the vision of Mr. President for the local pharmaceutical industry. It was a vision, which he espoused at the form he held on the pharmaceutical sector in 2003. He has translated this vision into a strong passion as evidenced in government's fiscal policies aimed at substantially providing an enabling environment for local industries," Lambo explained.
The 2005 fiscal policy the minister said, provided the most favourable incentives ever for the industry and government he said is committed to sustain and even improve the operating environment for the pharmaceutical industry as well as for other industrial sectors of the Nigerian economy.
The minister acknowledged that Nigeria still carries a heavy burden of malaria scourge, both in terms of morbidity and mortality, particularly for the most vulnerable groups of children and pregnant women. The burden he said, contributes substantially to the slowing down of the nation's development.
"It is now common knowledge that we have adopted a new malaria drug therapy that now focuses on the use of the fixed-dose Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) as first line therapy as a replacement for the old reliable choloroquine. It has to give way to the ACTs due to widespread resistance encountered with its usage," Lambo stated.
The minister regarded the event as a double-barrel one. Apart from Diasunate he noted, the launch of Emzor brands of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). With foray into ARV manufacturing, Lambo revealed that there are now nine pharmaceutical companies producing ARVs locally. He therefore hoped that more would join the bandwagon, which he said would bring greater assurance that the products will become more affordable and accessible. A scenario he said will impact positively on those living with HIV/AIDS and malaria control programme.
At the occasion, the elated Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Emzor, Mrs. Stella Okoli, pointed out that the twin scourge of malaria and HIV/AIDS needs no introduction. She lamented that it has ravaged the continent leaving behind death and misery in outstanding proportion.
She said "as you know, Emzor is a long standing partner of the government in its most noble aspiration to deliver good health to the Nigeria people. We have been in the battlefield for 20 years fighting diseases, scarcity and high cost of medicaments. Our mandate and promise to Nigerians is that we will consistently make available quality pharmaceutical products at affordable prices. We will never relent on this," she promised.
The Director General, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Dora Akunyili told the audience that NAFDAC is very impressed with the practice of drug production in Emzor, which she said they have never violated any of the agency's rules, not even once in the last 20 years. Of course that comment, attracted a standing ovation for Emzor.
She commended the company for producing 67 products that are of very high quality, which are not only sold in Nigeria, but all over the West African sub-region.
The first presenter, Dr. Philip Agomo, from the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Lagos, spoke on Malaria and Artemisinin Based Combination Drugs. He said they are unbiased umpires that investigate the efficacy and safety of drugs, which are registered by NAFDAC.
Their work on compliance, efficacy and safety of anti-malaria drugs, he said, started in 1995 with WHO-funded studies on the impact of pre-packaging of choloroquine and home management of malaria in various communities. A time came for paradigm shift, Agomoh noted, with the new National Anti-malarial Treatment policy that was adopted by pharmaceutical companies.
A lot of African countries, according to him have also adopted the ACTs combination. But for future trends in Nigeria, he said the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), encourages local cultivation of 'Artemisia annua', local manufacture and production of Artemisinin-based combination drugs, creation of six additional sentinel sites and appointment of 12 principal investigators in the six geo-political zones and updating the list of anti-malarial drugs.
Other presenters, Mr. Chris Eimunjeze and Albert Udoh, both of Emzor, spoke on Diasunate and Emzor's ARVs respectively. The products were launched at about 11.25 am by the Prof. Lambo, who represented Obasanjo, with Akunyili and other guests.
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