Community pharmacists in Akwa Ibom have frowned at the heavy reliance on imports of medications and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from China and India, despite the nation’s local capacity to produce. They have commended Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, on his giant stride in financing healthcare for the poor, and called for the strengthening of the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Agency. According to them, there was need for the inclusion of a Pharmacist in the Akwa Ibom State Health Insurance Agency Board in view of “the pivotal role of pharmaceutical services in healthcare, proven expertise of pharmacist in Health economics/Pharmacoeconomics and a groundswell of research that identifies cost of medications as a significant component of catastrophic health expenditure.
” This was part of the decisions in a communique reached at the 3rd Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) Akwa Ibom State, held at Ibom Hall, Uyo, recently. The communique endorsed by Pharmacist Tony Anderson Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) Akwa Ibom State, decried the soaring cost of medications occasioned by a depressed economy and exacerbated by the rising cost of energy; leading to an attendant spike in the operating costs of pharmaceutical businesses. This they said, has “left in its wake the withdrawal of some multinational pharmaceutical companies from Nigeria, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), coll.