The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) and Nigeria’s National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development(link is external) (NIPRD) will work together to revolutionize the country’s pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing industry.
The decision was announced by the two organisations following a High-Level Dialogue on Technology Gaps in Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical and Vaccine Industry’ hosted in Abuja from 18-19 March.
In his remarks, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, welcomed the support of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation. Its efforts to address technology gaps in the health sector would enable the government to accelerate medicines delivery in the country, he said.
“With the steps taken so far, I am confident that the government’s prioritisation of local vaccine production will begin to yield the desired results in the shortest possible time and drastically reduce dependence on pharmaceutical imports,” Alausa said.
He added that the country has a national plan in place for the research, development, and local production of vaccines. The African pharmaceutical market is estimated to be worth over $47 billion, but the continent spends more than $14 billion annually importing medicines and vaccines.
Nigeria manufactures 25% of its products and imports 75%, while Africa imports 99% of vaccines and 80-90% of medicines.
The APTF will work with countries such as Nigeria to help them achieve Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to ensure they meet World Health Organization standards, and to build local capacity and specific skills to strengthen domestic production of medicines.
