FROM THE SOCIAL MEDIA: The Need To Support The Local Pharmaceuticals

P&G’S products have zero local content. This makes them very expensive even as far back as two decades ago when I had a retail Pharmacy Practice. 

Fast forward to five years back; Chinese products have flooded the market and are much, much cheaper. P&G simply CANNOT compete. The exchange rate issue and remittance problem has heightened their difficulty in making profit. 

I particularly don’t see their plight as distressing. I would worry more about the Pharmaceutical Giants. But then look at India! Something is fundamentally wrong in how multinationals operate here. No backward integration! We should have had a few hundred Emzors by now. Instead, the few budding ones are not able to survive. We need deliberate Government Policy to support local manufacturing in the area of Pharmaceuticals.

Aside from the Health Sector, the Foreign Direct Investments  (FDI) that we need should be in infrastructure development; not areas where Nigerians excel in other climes and can do well with just a bit of Government Policy adjustment like production of pharmaceutical raw materials. 

We have almost inexhaustible capacity to produce pharmaceutical grade starch, binders, etc. We should even be exporting sef!! South Africa works with India to produce a lot of cheaper drugs with direct Government supervision!!

Kemi Ilori, a Lagos based pharmacist, examines the wider issues in the closing down of the manufacturing plants of Procter and Gamble in Nigeria with 5,000 job losses.

• The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not represent the opinions or views of OSUN DEFENDER.