Over 50% Africans Lack Access To Essential Medicines – Stakeholders

Less than 50 per cent of the population in Africa have access to essential medicines, thereby prompting players in the continent’s health sector to issue a stark call to action.

The issue was raised during a press conference to announce the partnership between Sygen Pharmaceuticals and ORx Pharmaceuticals on Friday, in Lagos.

The CEO, Sygen Pharmaceuticals Limited, Charles Ogunwuyi, averred that Africa pharmaceutical market is fast growing but faces challenges that stifle growth and access. “For instance, more than half of Africans lack access to essential medicines, leading to 10 million deaths annually; more than 70 per cent of pharma drugs imported to meet local need; limited forex supply, leading to supply chain disruptions and only 375 pharmaceutical manufacturers producing drugs for 1.3 billion Africans,” he further explained.

Despite these challenges, the Sub-Saharan Africa pharma market is projected to grow between 3-5 per cent over the next decade to $34 billion and the Nigerian pharmaceutical market is projected to grow at seven per cent CAGR between 2022 and 2033, Ogunwuyi affirmed.

Leveraging on these projections, Sygen’s CEO said Sygen Pharmaceuticals Limited, an innovative branded generics life sciences company with a strong commitment to creating access to drugs and improving patient outcomes in Africa has entered a strategic partnership with ORx Pharmaceutical Corporation, an advanced drug delivery specialty company with a focus on the design, development, and clinical testing of new and advanced dosage forms of promising drug compounds. Merge Sygen’s commercialization expertise with ORx’s advanced R&D capabilities will create impactful solutions in the continent,” Ogunwuyi added.

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The partnership between the two companies will see to the development of improved formulations of generic pharmaceuticals, focusing on products that have already received regulatory approval and have achieved substantial commercial success. “It will also lead to advanced innovative drug discovery programs into the regional and global pharmaceutical markets and reduce costs and increase access to high-quality generic medicines in Africa,” he added.

Speaking on the strategic vision of the partnership, Ogunwuyi said long term goal is to establish Nigeria as a hub for pharmaceutical innovation; commit $5million for R&D facility, expand local production with $17 million; commence R&D in Q1 2025; commence clinical trials in Q4 2025 and integrate R&D facility ready in Lagos in Q1 2026.

In the same vein, the CEO, ORx Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Dr. Alexander MacGregor, said the partnership will lead to a paradigm shift in the industry, adding that multinationals are leaving because they don’t have a stake in the Nigeria, as they are only in the country to make money. “When the numbers don’t look good, they leave. This union is not for us to make quick money, but for us to bridge the gap in the pharmaceutical space. Our aim is to produce drugs for Nigerians and Africans at large,” he stated.

Speaking on importation of drugs, MacGregor lamented that over 70 per cent of drugs in the Nigerian market are imported, adding that, “Even when you import those drugs that are already approved in the United States Canada and Europe, there is no assurance that those drugs will work. When I say work, I mean efficacy. I don’t mean that they don’t have the content. The content of the label says what it says. But a drug is not about just the content.”

In her remarks, the director general, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, applauded this strategic partnership, while urging other pharmaceutical companies to think in this direction.

“We at NAFDAC, started with the culture that there must be a changing paradigm in the pharmaceutical industry. We want to become less addictive to foreign-made products, because when you have addiction, it has to be treated radically. That was what we started six years ago. The changes we are observing now in the industry is a reflection of the changes that are taking place in NAFDAC. If we are not strong as a house, we cannot guide the manufacturers on how to use international standards and the quality management system approach to ensure that the products that our people are getting are of quality and safe. It is my honor to witness this partnership between Sygen and ORx, as the plan is to produce drugs that are of higher quality, cheap and safe for our people, “ Adeyeye stated.