By Zayamu Hassan
The Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), has commended the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), for his leadership and commitment in the development of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) for the production of phyto medicinal drugs in the country.
The Coordinator of AHBN, Dr Aminu Magashi Garba, gave the commendation when he paid a courtesy visit to the NIPRD Director General, Dr Obi Adigwe in Abuja.
He applauded the Institute for its efforts in the fight against COVID-19.
Magashi, therefore, called on all Nigerians to support the effort of NIPRD, insisting that “it is high time everybody in Nigeria hears what you are doing. Everybody in the street should know what NIPRD is doing.”
The AHBN Coordinator said that the purpose of the visit was to familiarize himself, learn and also hear what the agency was doing and “amplify it to a larger audience. Even though we are in Nigeria, we need to spread the story to the rest of Africa.”
While insisting that Nigeria must produce and export its own vaccines and other drugs, Magashi noted that: “Among the things we are doing is helping the local mindset that Africa is ready to produce our drugs and also our vaccine and we should not be carried away by always getting donation, we should be producing.
“While we are importing vaccines, we should also be exporting so that the equation will be balanced.
“We are getting donation of vaccines from all over the world, we, as a country, should also be exporting. The naira value will also get better and our foreign reserve will increase and our Forex will improve.”
On areas AHBN can support NIPRD and other government agencies, he said: “We felt as an advocacy group, we can push for this conversation to be strengthened so that NIPRD and other government agencies can deliver on their work.
“We are going to develop a small Term of Reference (ToR) that would guide a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to look at the areas that we will support advocacy, communication for NIPRD, what are the value we can add as an African NGO based in Abuja, Nigeria, and what we can do to continue to amplify the message.”
Speaking earlier, the Director General of NIPRD, Dr. Obi Adigwe, said that despite the many challenges he inherited when he assumed office, he noted that most of them have been resolved due to the high level of support from the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
He revealed that: “We have received over 100 pieces of equipment over the past few years. Talk about PCI, HPIC and synthesizer, there is no category of equipment that are indicated internationally for highest pharmaceutical phyto medicinal, microbiology and any type of analysis that you will not find in this institute.
“This equipment has now revalidated our efforts in providing innovative and world-class analysis in terms of the work that we do. All these equipment helped to produce world –class results over time.”
Speaking on what the Institute achieved within the past three under his leadership, Dr Adigwe said: “We are one of the first agency of our kind to achieve both the ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 certification. These are certifications that mean that analysis which are done in our laboratories are recognize all over the world.
“NIPRD has also been named a centre of excellence by a number of national and international bodies in various selected areas.
“We have also earned a strong reputation for being the industry leaders in various aspect of Research and Development (R&D).
“For instance, you are aware that the first phyto medicine that is licenced for the treatment of Sickle Cell was actually put together and developed in this institute.
“We conceptualized it from drug discovery all the way to phase 2 clinical trials. The product is derived from 4 plants which is already licenced and is in used in over 30 countries across the world for Sickle cell aneamia.”
For the past three years, the NIPRD DG disclosed, “we have increased our registered products to about five now which has been registered by the regulatory authorities to help in addressing health care needs.
“NIPRD has also led a capacity building and knowledge transfer. For instance, those of you who are domicile in other states of Nigeria, you have heard the various programmes we have undertaken in building the capacity of phyto medicinal practitioners.”
