The director-general of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Dr. Obi Adigwe, has revealed that over 40 nations patronise its local medicine developed by the institute for treating sickle cell anaemia.
Adigwe made this known when he received the coordinator, African Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr. Aminu Magashi, who paid him a courtesy call in his office in Abuja.
He said that Niprovax is one of the world’s most renowned phytomedicines for sickle cell anaemia.
“NIPRISAN is a drug developed by the NIPRID for the management of sickle cell disorders.
“Sickle cell is a disease that plagues only black people and one out of every five blacks you meet are Nigerians.
“NIPRD has the international reputation to have developed this product that is used in over 40 countries and should be supported,” he said.
He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has supported NIPRD to champion the eradication of sickle cell disease by contributing conceptual innovations to mitigate the devastating effects of the disorder across the sub-Saharan region.
“The NIPRD team of experts placed special focus on efficient and sustainable utilisation of local resources for self-reliance in pharmaceutical products and services.
“The outcome of this was the breakthrough with NIPRISAN. NIPRISAN is an anti-sickling medicine extracted from four local herbs in Nigeria which were found to be efficacious in the management of the disease.
“NIPRISAN is now called NICLOVIX. The production of NICLOVIX by manufacturers in the country has substantially increased access to the drug for people with SCD within and outside the country,” he stated.
According to him, NIPRD is a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) mandated to engage in activities that promote capacity-building, policy-making, data collation, drug distribution and development of contextual partnerships that can expedite access to health care.
While highlighting some of the milestones recorded by institute, Adigwe said the institute has continued to set the pace for responsive innovativeness in the nation’s research.
He said that the agency is developing cutting-edge interventions that would dominate the African landscape over the next two decades.
Earlier, Magashi commended the agency, for its tremendous efforts at ensuring innovative research and development of phytomedicines, drugs, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and biological products from indigenous herbs in the country.
“I am impressed by the achievements of the agency in meeting her objectives and in ensuring the provision of responsive solutions to the health of Nigerians,” he said.
He mentioned that he was at the agency to discuss strategic ways of supporting its mandate on local vaccine manufacturing and to identify the bottlenecks in research development and production in the country.
The AHBN boss stated that the meeting is to define the short, medium and long-term strategies to boost local vaccine production in the country.
He highlighted engagement for more partnerships and biotechnological developers to liaise with the agency.
