By Asmau Ahmad
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) said that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pfizer to ensure that drugs are available, affordable and accessible to Nigerians.
Director-General of NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, represented by Mr John Okoh, General Manger, Finance said this in Abuja on Monday during the signing of the MoU.
Pfizer is a leading biotech company, with differentiated and innovative medicines in various disease areas, including critical care, inflammation and immunology, Oncology, vaccines and rare disease.
“The authority medicine supply initiative is to ensure that medicine supply and other products are affordable, available, accessibly and acceptably for the consumption of all Nigerians.
“The signing is a major health status that will improve the health of Nigeria and with partnership with Pfizer, a committee will be formed to draw the roadmap for full implementation of the MoU.
“The MoU is very important to authority’s journey toward achieving the universal health coverage,” Sambo said.
According to him, the drug registered hitchhiking medicine supply initiative introduced recently will ensure the availability of drugs in the market and less expensive.
Pfizer West Africa Country Manager, Mr Olayinka Subair said that the company as a global pharmaceuticals firm was involved in research and innovative medicine.
According to him, as a global pharmaceutical, it leads the way in disease management, while the vision is to bring the best medicines to the hands of the patients.
Subair said that the signing would put into reality the global vision of the company to reduce healthcare disparity among the rich and the poor, irrespective of the locations globally.
“Today, we are coming with a critical care product, managing infection and in future we will bring in other curative medicines that are globally released for treatment of various illnesses including cancer and other health situations,” he said.
