If Nigeria is to reduce its disease burden and forge a path towards sustainable economic development, it must invest heavily in science and innovation – investing and strengthening pharmaceutical manufacturing is a way to achieve this. Nigeria has an opportunity to turn this around by prioritising investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing of drugs and vaccines, thereby reducing over-dependency and over-reliance on the consumption of medicines and therapeutics from foreign countries. India, also a lower middle-income country with a large population has successfully shown that drug manufacturing can be successfully achieved. This became a watershed moment in the turnaround of India’s pharmaceutical industry. Nigeria can truly become the ‘pharmacy of Africa’ if we prioritize investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Source: Nigerian Tribune January 06, 2024 21:41 UTC