Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, is seeking stronger public support for medicines made in Nigeria, saying the country should do more to promote its own pharmaceutical products instead of relying heavily on imports.
The university’s Deputy Director of AB Pharmaceuticals Services, Oluwatoyin Afolabi, said Nigeria was losing economic opportunities by depending on foreign herbal remedies despite having local medicinal resources and researchers capable of developing homegrown alternatives.
She spoke on Saturday at a two-day business summit organised by ABUAD alongside pharmaceutical marketers in Ado-Ekiti. The meeting focused on finding ways to get the university’s products into the hands of more Nigerians.
Three products — AB Mal, ABUAD Virucidine and AB Health Animation 250mg — were showcased at the summit as the institution stepped up efforts to expand their reach.
Afolabi said the project reflected the ambition of ABUAD founder, Aare Afe Babalola, to encourage the use of medicines developed and manufactured within Nigeria.
She said, “The ultimate reason we are here today is to establish a marketing plan that will help us take these products to the Nigerian people.
“We have served the Indians enough, and we have served the Chinese enough. We have embraced different forms of multilevel marketing and imported their traditional medicines, while Nigerians continue to work hard to promote these foreign products.
“It is time for a revolution, and a revolution does not necessarily require a crowd. Sometimes, it takes one determined individual to change the world. We have seen people change the course of history,” she said.
She argued that Nigerians should give locally developed remedies more attention, noting that traditional medicine had been used in communities long before orthodox medical practice became widespread.
Afolabi said, “Before the advent of orthodox doctors, our people relied on traditional medicines, including those derived from local resources, and these medicines served them.
“However, we have yet to embrace our own products with the same enthusiasm with which we promote Chinese medicines and other foreign alternatives.
“That is why we are here today to establish a business relationship with the Association of Pharmaceutical Products Marketers of Nigeria and other stakeholders that will help promote ABUAD pharmaceutical products and change the mindset of Nigerians.
“We want our people to stop depending excessively on Chinese and Indian medicines when we have the capacity to develop and promote our own products.
“If you know the volume of imported medicines entering Nigeria every day, you will be amazed. A significant amount of our economic resources goes into purchasing foreign products. We must begin to reverse this trend by investing in, producing and marketing medicines developed in Nigeria,” Afolabi said.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Smaranda Olarinde, said reducing pharmaceutical imports would require stronger links between academic institutions and the wider healthcare industry.
She called for universities, manufacturers, regulators, healthcare workers, investors and consumers to work together to help promising research become products that can reach the public.
Also speaking, the Ekiti State Chairman of the Association of Pharmaceutical Products Marketers of Nigeria, Peter Ajayi, commended Babalola’s vision and said the association would support efforts to introduce the university’s medicines to more potential users.