Managing Director of JNC International, a pharmaceutical company, Clare Omatseye, has called for a functional pharmaceutical supply chain to ensure consistent flow of affordable medicine in Nigeria.
Omatseye made the call at the inauguration of the Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Distributors Association of Nigeria in Ikeja, Lagos.
She spoke as a keynote speaker at the inauguration on the ‘Supply chain in contemporary health services: The disruption.”
This is even as a former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Dr. Ahmed Yakasai, urged PWDAN urged to work assiduously to achieve the association’s objectives.
Omatseye said that drug distribution process in the country was chaotic, porous and under serious threat in terms of drug security.
“We should be able to streamline our drug distribution process in the country, and make sure people have access to quality medicines, vaccines and other pharmaceutical consumables.
“In my opinion and based on other reports, our drug distribution in the country is under a serious threat due to the porous and chaotic ways things are being run.
“The objective of what we are talking about today is access to quality healthcare that is affordable, efficacious and effective,” she said.
Suggesting the best way to achieve consistent flow of affordable drugs in the country, Omatseye said, “The only way we can overcome these challenges of chaotic drug distribution is to be self-sufficient through local production.
“Our healthcare system was exposed during the height of COVID-19 pandemic, and it shows our fragmented system as it is, because there was already shortage of pharmaceuticals consumables.