Osinbajo: Nigeria Has Capacity to Produce Anti-retroviral Drugs Locally

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• WHO selects four local pharmaceutical companies

The Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has disclosed that Nigeria has the capacity to provide anti-retroviral drugs for the 3.4million Nigerians living with HIV.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said the vice-president disclosed this while receiving the UNAIDS Country Director, Dr. Bilali Camara in his office yesterday.

Akande said Osinbajo pledged Nigeria’s readiness to work with the United Nations in ensuring sustained treatment for the 3.4m Nigerians living with HIV.
Osinbajo said the federal government would support the local production of anti-retroviral drugs in the country,

“Certainly the capacity exists in Nigeria to be able to produce those drugs for Nigerians, and the whole of west and central African countries. And we certainly can contribute to see how that happens,”  Osinbajo said.

Camara, who led a delegation from UNAIDS Nigeria office/Focal Point for ECOWAS, had informed the vice president that about four Nigerian pharmaceutical companies had been preferred by the World Health Organization already as potential local manufacturers of the antiretroviral drugs.


He said that once those companies start to produce the drugs, Nigeria would not need to depend on foreign supply and importation as was currently the case adding that by so doing, access to the drugs by those infected by the virus would be easier.

While commending the UNAIDS for its efforts towards the eradication of HIV/AIDS in the country, Osinbajo stated that the federal government would explore the specific areas that it might be able to support the pharmaceutical companies that would be able to locally manufacture the HIV drugs.

He praised the UNAIDS for keeping its eye on the ball and remaining focussed in the fight against the disease, expressing hope that working together, both the Buhari administration and the UN would be able to achieve the HIV/AIDS eradication targets in the country.

He said the administration would look for a way to make a difference in healthcare generally and fight against HIV specifically.


Osinbajo said the government would find the resources to fund healthcare, especially concerning the HIV/AIDS epidemic in spite of its challenging financial conditions at the moment.

The UNAIDS Country Director had earlier requested the support of the vice-president as Chairman of the National Economic Council, NEC to ensure an increase in domestic funding for AIDS in order to sustain the national AIDS response and end AIDS in Nigeria by 2030.

He also asked that the federal government maintain its commitment to reduce maternal and child mortality in the country.

Responding Osinbajo accepted the challenge and also explained that there were many challenges involved in maternal and infant mortality that the administration would “deal with in different ways. It is a matter of life and death, and we certainly must pay attention to it.”
The statement said that while 170,000 HIV/AIDS related deaths were recorded last year including 18 per cent children, about 800,000 people living with HIV were currently on the antiretroviral drugs at the end of last year.


Source: This Day Live

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