From Our Correspondent
The Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 12 pharmaceutical companies as part of its efforts to guarantee medicine security.
The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Prof. Mohammed Sambo, announced the initiative at the signing of the MoU with NHIA Medicines Supply Initiative (NMSI) in Abuja.
Sambo said the initiative gears towards strengthening local pharmaceutical manufacturers to ultimately guarantee medicine security.
He recalled that the authority set up a committee on NMSI on Feb. 19, 2020, for the branding of NHIA medicines and other health products.
“This is to eradicate out-of-stock syndrome as well as ensure the quality of its medicines,” the DG said.
According to him, the committee recommended the setting up of an implementation committee to bring the initiative to fruition.
Sambo said the initiative would 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.”
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He said the authority selected seven states for implementation of the pilot phase of the initiative. The states are Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Niger, Osun Sokoto and the FCT.
NHIA received 44 submissions from pharmaceutical companies
He said that a total of 44 submissions were received from pharmaceutical companies and destination management organisations (DMOs).
“Out of these, the committee selected 20 companies and eight DMOs to provide services for the initiative.
“We held negotiated with the selected pharmaceutical companies and DMOs out of which we reached with 12 pharmaceutical companies and 8 DMOs.
“The pharmaceutical companies will be branding 33 products for the health insurance ecosystem in the first phase,” the DG said.
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