Local production of vaccines
The coast is now clear for Nigeria to resume manufacturing of vaccines in the country as the Federal Government recently ratified the 12-year-old agreement between it and May & Baker Nigeria Plc for local vaccine production. Health Minister Prof Isaac Adewole said the Federal Executive Council [FEC] approved a proposal to go into a joint venture with pharmaceutical giant May & Baker in which the government will hold 49 per cent equity and the company will have the rest.
According to the plan, the company will have an initial capital of N100 million and equity contributions of N1.3 billion. The Federal Government is contributing the Institute of Vaccines Research [assessed to be worth N1.27 billion], where the new company will take off, as its equity. The company’s board will be made up of seven people, four from May & Baker and three from the federal government. The company will take off later this year and will between 2017 and 2021 produce basic vaccines that the country needs. From 2021 and beyond, other vaccines that are necessary will also be produced for Nigerians.
Daily Trust welcomes the steps taken by the Federal Government to revive local production of vaccines in the country bearing in mind that vaccines are issues of security concern, not only health. The recent outbreak of CSM in the country exposed our soft underbelly because most state governments had no store of vaccines. Thus, it is imperative to guarantee the security of all Nigerians, particularly our children. Part of its benefits include improved access to medicine and affordability; assurance of quality drugs; sustainability of essential vaccines needs and supply to Nigerians; employment of innovative techniques to absorb some local content cost and employment generation.
Historically, vaccines manufacturing in Nigeria has been hampered by series of adverse issues such as negligence, lack of political will and bureaucracy. Between 1940 and1991, Nigeria was not only producing vaccines such as smallpox, yellow fever, and anti-rabies vaccines, but we also exported to Cameroon, Central African Republic and a few other countries. However, in 1991 the Vaccine Production Laboratory stopped production ostensibly because government wanted to reactivate and upgrade the facility, which did not take place till today. In 2005, May & Baker entered into a joint venture with the Federal Government to take over the facilities of the Federal Vaccine Production Laboratory (FVPL) in Yaba for the purpose of resuming vaccine production which had stopped due to the inability of the FVPL to cope with operational challenges. The project was however delayed due to the non-ratification of the agreement by successive governments.
But with the recent development, we urge the Federal Government to proceed with all deliberate speed to actualize the dream of private vaccine production in Nigeria. Though some measures are already taken to ensure the project’s take off, we advise the government to quickly constitute the company’s board. This would put life into the joint venture agreement to establish Bio-vaccines Ltd, which we believe would commence Nigeria’s journey to vaccines security and ensure access to quality vaccines by the Nigerian populace at affordable cost.
Furthermore, in line with the National Drug Policy which stipulates that Nigeria should aim at producing 70% of its medicine needs, the Federal Government should support willing and capable groups to expedite action towards boosting local production of drugs and vaccines so that waiver on tariffs on importation could be reduced significantly. We hope that the company, when it finally takes off, should be viable and able to pay its staff with proceeds from the sale of vaccines. It should develop capacity for research and local content sourcing to reduce the cost of drugs and create efficient systems by addressing the eradication of most devastating diseases such as malaria, meningitis, hepatitis, typhoid fever in humans and rinderpest, trypanosomiasis, CBPP, FMD, avian influenza, rabies, Newcastle disease among others in animals.