By Obaike Odihue
In a bid to lower the cost of drugs and create increased access to essential medicines, the Federal Government has appointed a group purchasing organisation, Medipool, to be the supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, disclosed this to newsmen while briefing them on the outcomes of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, held on Monday at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He explained that the initiative listed to leverage the power of government as a large buyer of these commodities to negotiate lower prices, adding that the current administration since inception has been concerned about rising cost of pharmaceuticals and the effect on Nigerians generally.
The Minister further explained that the scope will not limited to procurement, but also planning, distribution, monitoring supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported.
He said: “In fact, for almost a year and a half, government has been trying different ways to reduce the cost, because we know that Nigerians were hurting because of rising cost of pharmaceuticals. It’s not limited to Nigeria. As you may be aware, even countries as far as the United States are placing executive orders to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals, but in line with the presidential initiative to unlock the healthcare value chain, and the executive order, which the president signed in June 2024, that executive order provided incentives for local manufacturing by taking away tax tariffs for for import of raw materials, so that we can encourage our local manufacturers.
“There’s an element of that executive order which is to allow us to shape the market by aggregating the demand in the Nigerian health space, and channel that demand to encourage our local suppliers.
“Today, council approved Medipool, it’s a group purchasing organization for competitive pricing and to be supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria, through the federal government’s intervention, the basic health care provision fund, but also eventually outside that, through federal tertiary hospitals, so that as a buyer, we can negotiate lower prices.
“So it’s using monopsony power of government as a large buyer of those commodities, negotiate lower prices and then channel those commodities. And the scope includes, but it’s not limited to procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported, and import substitution and the financial management and payment systems, as well as capacity building and training and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs that are the quality that Nigerians can benefit and at a lower cost through, a public private partnership.
“And that vehicle Medipool has been vetted through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, has been benchmarked with other global group purchasing organizations, including Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and many other countries. And we believe that this is a major intervention that will shape the domestic market, so that the demand for quality pharmaceuticals can be channeled in a way that lowers cost and also improves quality and stimulates local manufacturing that is medical.”
Professor Pate also disclosed that FEC also awarded a N2.3 billion contract for the procurement and installation of cardiac categorization machine for Usman Danfodio University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto.
He said the equipment will essentially help “the university hospital provide diagnosis and treatment services for heart and blood vessel problems, heart attacks, irregular heart rates. Those are very complicated, very serious medical issues.”
He added: “The University Hospital in Sokoto will now have this capability, which will serve the population in Sokoto state, the North West geopolitical zone of our country, and indeed the country. It will save lives and also contribute towards reversing outbound medical tourism, because Nigerians can be able to access services which either or they were not able to.”
