Lara Adejoro Medical experts have decried the skyrocketing cost and scarcity of diabetes medications in the country. This was even as they said the number of diabetic patients had increased to about 14 million in Nigeria. November 14 is World Diabetes Day, and this year’s theme is “Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps.
” Speaking with our correspondent, a Consultant Physician and Diabetologist, Dr Mansur Ramalan lamented the high cost and unavailability of diabetes drugs. Ramalan, a first Vice President of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria, said, “Diabetic patients are suffering both high costs of drugs and unavailability of drugs because three of those companies that are marketing these drugs have left the country, including Sanofi Aventis which is majorly producing insulin. “These drugs have been sold to what they call third parties because the people who are marketing them are no longer doing that in Nigeria.
So once they go to third parties, the prices will naturally increase. Then, secondly because of the problems of the exchange rate, the prices have skyrocketed. So, there’s a problem of affordability, there’s a problem of availability and accessibility.
These are the challenges facing now,” he stated. The expert noted that the government needs to address the issues of diabetes to reduce the pain of the patients. “The association wrote to the government this year about the cost of drugs, but nothing was done about it.
Last week, we heard that there are fr.