Plight of a life saver
Adedeji Ademigbuji with additional reports by Steve Aborisade

What better endorsement can an organization wish for other than this from the President of the Nation? That was November 2005. Most people know that President Olusegun Obasanjo is not given to vain talk, and like someone rightly remarked, “the president will not utter such words if he doesn’t mean them”. Fidson Healthcare Ltd is the first local Pharmaceutical company to venture into the production of the anti retroviral drug (ARV) in Nigeria. It all started last year, and now, for a country that has over half a million people on the waiting list to commence HIV treatment, it was an eyesore to see several cartons of the locally manufactured drugs wasting in storage at their factory. Going by the notification on the cartons, the drugs expires next year June.

When Fidson started the local production of ARV last year, according to Naomi Sanni, the ARV Manager of the company, their hopes were high. What with the number of people who definitely need the drugs. As at the last check, only four states from the thirty six that we have in Nigeria has came knocking for the drugs. They include Benue, Cross River, Markurdi and Bauchi. Out of these states only Benue came back for a second purchase. Meanwhile, all over, there is an army of people waiting patiently for these drugs. How long more should they wait?
 
While boxes of the pills sit on the shelves at Fidson’s warehouse, millions of Nigerians living with HIV who require treatment remain without access to the federal government’s free treatment program. In April, $50 million of international aid earmarked for free ARV programs was suspended by the Global Fund over fears that the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) was not implementing the program effectively. Several instance of mismanagement were cited and in one instance, the funds secretariat said “$50,000 was spent to send 14 people on information missions to Botswana at a time when the grant was not performing." The suspension has no doubt prevented several Nigerians from accessing this life prolonging medications.

Naomi Sanni, Fidson’s official who led the tour around the ARV production line explained that the drugs are produced in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. “Trials were conducted at the University of Jos under the supervision of Dr. Nelson Ochepke and the effectiveness of the drug was comparable with the best brands in the world. In fact, the disintegration time of Virex is less than 2 minutes”. According to her, the company has decided to donate some of these drugs to push them out of the warehouse to people who urgently need them. “You can see cartons of drugs here, they expire next year”. Continuing, “If you look at the business of ARV, it is basically government  based, without patronage from government there is no way you can survive in the business.”

On how affordable the drugs are, Sanni responded, “retail price for what an individual requires in a month will cost about N5, 500. This however depends on the combinations used. There are three active ingredients recommended by the World Health Organisation and because of the issue of resistance and adherence, we combine these three active ingredients into one single dosage”

Recently, according to Sanni, Fidson began a capacity-building training for staff of the Cross Rivers state Ministry of Health. The beneficiaries include nurses, doctors and other medical practitioners as well as pharmacists. Training focused on the management of HIV/AIDS. As a way of encouraging some state governments to follow the federal government’s free treatment initiatives, Sanni said that Fidson has proposed to train the staff of different state governments on HIV/AIDS care. She describes their plan: “We will donate free drugs to some states so that they can know that they can start a free drug scheme, and later we partner with them so that they can get the drugs from us. We have representative across the country to talk to government officials from local to the federal levels.”

From the obvious non patronage from the government, other pharmaceutical companies like Evans Medical Plc and Archy Pharmaceutical that started local production of ARV a few months ago are likely to be dogged with similar problems. The fear is that if the local manufacturers fold up, and overseas donors such as the Global Fund stops supplying funds or free drugs, the several millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria may be faced with a hard time similar to what happened sometime ago when supply of drugs was truncated for several months, the implications at that time is still fresh in our memory.

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