By Hassan Zaggi
Indeed, enrollees of health insurance in Nigeria, either at the federal level through National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) or at the level of State Health Insurance Agencies are in for better days.
This is because the nagging issue of drug availability, affordability and quality has been resolved once and for all.
The cheering news to all enrollees of health insurance across the country is that drugs that are qualitative and affordable will be produce specially for them with NHIA inscription on it.
The initiative, apart from being of immense benefit to the enrollees across the country, is geared towards the strengthening of local pharmaceutical manufacturers which will ultimately guarantee medicine security.
Another interesting aspect of the initiative is that it will help to reduce the cost of medicines, especially, that of intravenous fluids which will reduce by as much as 50% of current market price.
The drugs will be available in all the NHIA accredited health facilities in the pilot states in the next one month.
Twelve Pharmaceutical Companies have been given the approval to produce 33 branded products for the health insurance ecosystem in the first phase.
Speaking at the official signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NHIA and drug manufacturers in the country under the umbrella of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), the Director General of the NHIA, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo, explained that: “The initiative of branding NHIA medicines and other health products is to facilitate the supply of affordable, acceptable, accessible, available and quality medicines and other health products.
“The initiative is to enhance the production of high-quality medicines that will inspire the confidence of users.”
The NHIA Director General explained that his agency has chosen 7 states including Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto states and the FCT for the pilot phase of implementation of this initiative.
He further explained that: “On April 5, 2022, the NHIA placed an advert in national dailies for the Expression of Interest by Pharmaceutical Companies and Drug Management Organisations (DMO) who wish to brand medicines for the health insurance eco-system and DMOs who wish to provide supply tailored services within the ecosystem.
“A total of 44 submissions were received from pharmaceutical companies and DMOs. The submissions were scrutinized and synthesized by the selection committee and 20 companies and 8 DMOs were selected to provide services for the initiative.
“Negotiations were held with the selected pharmaceutical companies and DMOs. After the negotiations, agreement was reached with 12 pharmaceutical companies and 8 DMOs.
“The 12 Pharmaceutical Companies will be branding 33 products for the health insurance ecosystem in the first phase.”
Responding to questions from journalists, Prof. Sambo said: “The media has challenged me on several occasions about incessant complaints from our enrollees, especially, in respect of quality drugs.
“Now, we initiated the medicine supply initiative. This initiative is basically to brand drugs with NHIA inscription. It is a very long and tortuous journey for the past two years. “We have reached a stage whereby today, we are signing MoU with drug manufacturers and DMOs.
“Drug manufacturers will be manufacturing 33 drugs in phase one of the implementation of this initiative and this drugs will now be branded in NHIA inscription and you could see that all the manufacturers that have gotten a nod to manufacture are accredited manufacturers that are producing drugs in Nigeria.
“So, in the next one month of the signing of the MoU, they will come with the first brand of the drugs which will now be available in every health facility so that every enrollee of the National Health Insurance ecosystem whether at the level of NHIA at the national level or at the state level will be prescribed those drugs. Therefore the question of availability, affordability and accessibility will be a thing of the past.”
On her part, the representative of the PMG-MAN who is also the General Manager of Daily Needs Industry, Mrs Ngozi Osuji, expressed the happiness of her group over the signing of the MoU.
She assured that drug manufacturers in the country will not betray the confidence reposed in them, noting that Nigerians will get nothing less than qualitative and affordable drugs.
“We want to congratulate the NHIA Director General for seeing the process through and the MoU have been signed.
“From PMG MAN, we are excited because we are part of the process. In the past, the indigenous manufacturers are usually sidelined. There is no one that can take care of a child better than the mother and I tell you, there is no where you can get quality drugs than in Nigeria today because we have NAFDAC that have attained World Health Organisation (WHO) Maturity Level (ML) 3 and is almost getting level 4 in regulatory accreditation.
“So, be rest assured that when any member of the PMG-MAN supply their drugs, you can go to bed, they are quality drugs. Take it from us.
“For PMG-MAN, for those drugs that we have capacity, we will ask that we be given the opportunity to produce them. Let us get made in Nigeria medicines and go to bed with it. We promise that we will do our best,” Mrs Ngozi assured.
While we commend the NHIA for achieving this feet, it is important that the agency triggers its intelligence unit to action to ensure that Nigerians are not short-change by the manufacturers.
It is also important to call on Nigerians to get enrolled in the various packages of the NHIA either at the federal or state health insurance agencies so that they can also benefit from this initiative.
For Nigeria to attain medicine security, this initiative is the way to go, hence, should be supported by all Nigerians.
