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The Coalition of Civil Society Network on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (COCSHAN) says there is no
local Anti Retroviral (ARV) brand in the country at the moment.

Mr Ikenna Nwakamma, the first Co-chairman of the society, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on
Tuesday while reacting to speculations that Nigeria produces and exports ARV drugs to neighbouring countries.

ARV is a drug used to prevent retrovirus such as HIV from replicating. The term primarily refers to antiretroviral (ARV) HIV drugs.

Nwakamma, therefore, explained that some pharmaceutical companies in the country had received advanced level accreditation
to produce the drug but lacked government support.

He added that “you know that donors are mainly funding our HIV programmes, but Nigerian government is funding HIV
response in Abia and Taraba.

“The President promised to fund additional 50,000 people living with the virus every year. I think we should launch our local
ARV drug using government fund in the two states.”

The cochairman said that the drugs could easily be manufactured if pharmaceutical companies in the country could be supported by government.

Nwakamma reiterated calls for local ARV brand.

According to him, the donors will gradually leave, so, it is important to build sustainable systems that will ensure that their
exit will not throw us into bigger problem.

NAN reports that there have been speculations that Nigeria exports ARV drugs to other African countries.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday took away four ‘Ghana-must-go’ bags suspected to contain money from the Zamfara office of INEC.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the operatives were at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Gusau in continuation of its investigation over alleged non payment of ad hoc staff who conducted the 2019 general election.

Eye witnesses told NAN that the EFCC operatives arrived the office around noon with heavily armed personnel  and ransacked the facility for close to two hours.

The eye witnesses further told NAN that all the four bags and some documents were allegedly recovered from the office of the accountant.

Some INEC officials who were earlier arrested by the EFCC were brought along during the two-hour search and were afterwards taken back into custody.

A petition to the EFCC by Abdullahi Nasiru, one of the ad hoc staff, had alleged that they were shortchanged by INEC to the tune of over N80 million in the allowances paid to them after the general election when compared to what was paid ad hoc staff in other states.

The EFCC operatives and INEC officials refused to respond to questions from newsmen after the search.(NAN)

(FLOWERBUDNEWS)  President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday met with the newly constituted Presidential Economic Advisory Council (ECA).

Mr Buhari played host to the ECA when the members of the council visited him at the presidential villa in Abuja.

The body was constituted last month with the mandate to advise the president on matters relating to the economy.

After the gathering, the president accused the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund of publishing inaccurate statistical data about the country.

Buhari also said he has mandated his economic advisory team with the new task of having proper statistics gathering mechanisms.

Both the World Bank and the IMF have in recent times lamented the debt profile of Nigeria in relation to GDP.

The World Poverty Clock also described Nigeria as the World Poverty Capital, a designation rejected by the Buhari administration.

The statistics regarding the high unemployment rate and poverty released by the National Bureau of Statistics which is a government agency, have also been rejected by the Buhari administration.

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The statistics regarding the human rights records which was released by Amnesty International have also been rejected by the government.

“We must domesticate our policies to reflect our local realities. While we very much welcome the cooperation and support we are getting from our friends abroad, it is important to make it clear that Nigeria can only truly move forward with homegrown solutions,” the president said in series of tweets Wednesday.

“This must extend to data collection as well. Today, most of the statistics quoted about Nigeria are developed abroad by the World Bank, IMF and other foreign bodies. Some of these statistics are wild estimates that bear little relation to the facts on the ground.

“We can only plan realistically when we have reliable data. As a government we are taking very serious steps to improve the quality of data available for policymaking, and today I charged the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to prioritize the collection of Primary data,” Buhari added.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Federal Government of Nigeria at the ongoing 39th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) has invited investors to leverage on the potential of Nigeria to do businesses for the boosting of its digital economy.

Dr Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications, made the call at the African Investment Forum (AIF), a platform designed to showcase the opportunities in Nigerian, African ICT sector.

GITEX is the biggest annual technology gathering of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia with over 200,000 technology interests and over 145 countries in participation.

Pantami, who emphasised on the opportunities in Nigeria, said that investors could leverage on the demography, youthful population, skills and readiness of Nigerians to come and do businesses.

According to him, Nigeria has the right policies for businesses.

“Africa’s population is growing at an average rate of 2.57 per cent which is almost 220 per cent, the average global growth rate of 1.17 per cent per annum.

“The  United Nations also estimates that half of global population growth, projected to  occur  between  now  and  2050,  is  expected  to  occur in Africa.

“These statistics show that even though we already have a large market of about 1.2 billion people in Africa, investors should expect an even larger market in the upcoming years.

“Nigeria’s geographic and financial position on the continent make it a very

strategic  country  and  good  starting  point  for  investors  interested  in  the African continent.

“Nigeria is located between the Central and Western parts of Africa and offers investors, immediate access to over half of the African continent represented by those that reside in Western and Central Africa,“ he said

He said Nigeria could also boost of approximately 200 million people living in the country.

Pantami further said that with an average age of over 18 years, Nigeria had a potential and critical mass of ‘digital natives’ that could transform the country into a regional and global ICT power house.

Citing World Bank, the minister said Nigeria had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP), valued at 397 billion USD and being the largest economy in Africa with 10 th largest oil reserve in the world.

He said Nigeria was making huge efforts in increasing broadband penetration, digital literacy, developmental regulation, local content development, among other strategies, to build digital economy.

He also said that digitisation of services was not restricted to the public sector alone, adding that Nigerian government was encouraging educational institutions and the private sector to digitise their service delivery.

Pantami reiterated that Nigeria accounted for about 31per cent of the digital platforms deployed by the private sector in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to him, government is mitigating challenges posed by cyber criminals.

“One of our strategies is to ensure that there is a proper digital identity for all those that transact in the digital economy.

“We have addressed the issue of about 9.4 million improperly registered SIM cards by either blocking them or doing proper registration.

“This is to secure our cyber space. We went to this great extent to give Nigerians and our potential investors’ confidence in the sector,” he said.

He also said that investors could acquire visa on arrival, register businesses online up to 95 per cent of the business which could be done electronically.

Mr Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA),said that  government was ensuring that there was ease of doing business.

Inuwa recalled that the World Bank recently included Nigeria among top 20 countries of the world with a seamless process of the ease of doing business.

‘’The government just set up Industry Policy Competitive Advisory Council which is mandated to work with the private sector to accelerate the industralisation of Nigeria.

“The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is also there with objective of economic recovery, building global economy and accelerate inclusive growth by developing human capital,’’ he said.

The 39th GITEX is a week long programme from Oct. 6 to 10. (NAN)

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has been informed
that Swissmedic, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority of Switzerland has detected low
levels of N-Nitrosodimethylamine (N-NDMA), a genotoxic impurity in Zantac injection 50mg/5ml
batch number 669. Genotoxic substances such as N-NDMA are known to be potentially
carcinogenic when ingested, inhaled or penetrate the skin.
The impurity was detected by Medicines Control Laboratory of Swissmedic. The value of N-NDMA
found was 0.3ppm relative to the active substance. The currently agreed threshold in Europe for
N-NDMA in Ranitidine Hydrochloride is 0.16ppm.
Ranitidine is a medicine used to treat and prevent ulcers of the stomach and intestine. It belongs
to a group of medicines known as H2-Blocker. It works by reducing the amount of acid that the
stomach produces.
N-NDMA has been classified by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as probably
carcinogenic to humans. It was reported that the impurity was also detected in the active
`pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufactured by Saraca Laboratory.
Following the detection of the impurity, some countries and their National Medicines Regulatory
Authorities have taken various actions:
S/N Country Regulator Action Taken
1. Switzerland Swissmedic Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) instructed to carry out
pharmacy/retail level recall of all Zantac batches
in Swiss market.
Swissmedic asked for recall of all ranitidine containing
products from Swiss market.
2. Singapore HSA HSA tested all locally available ranitidine products for
the presence of nitrosamine compounds and found
that the products contained NDMA. The APIs was
supplied by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory India and
Saraca Laboratory.
GSK was instructed to suspend the wholesale supply
and conduct class 2 (retail level) recall of Zantac.
3 USA USFDA Issued a statement alerting patients and health
care professionals on NDMA found in samples of
ranitidine.
4 Finland FIMEA GSK instructed to implement Pharmacy/retail level recall
of all Zantac products (Tablets, effervescent tablets
and syrups) from the Finish market.
S/N Country Regulator Action Taken
5 Ireland HPRA Prepare to recall Zantac products manufactured using
API from Saraca Laboratory from Pharmacies and
retail levels in Irish market.
6 Denmark DMA GSK requested to implement a pharmacy/retail level
recall of all Zantac products (Syrups and injections)
from Danish market.
7 Saudi Arabia SFDA GSK instructed to carry out a pharmacy/retail level recall
of all Zantac products (Tablets, effervescent tablets,
injections and syrups) from the Saudi market.
8 Kenya PBB PBB decided that all ranitidine containing products
shall be recalled up to retail pharmacy level by
their respective Marketing Authorization Holders
(MAHs) until proved to be safe.
The Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) of Zantac in Nigeria, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) has
confirmed to the Agency that Zantac is no longer imported into Nigeria. The last batch of Zantac
that was imported into Nigeria expired in November, 2018.
NAFDAC implores all Pharmaceutical importers to stop importation of all ranitidine containing
products till further notice.
NAFDAC has strengthened surveillance at ports of entry to prevent importation of ranitidine
containing products till further notice.
Distributors, wholesalers and retail pharmacies in possession of stock of ranitidine containing
products should immediately stop distribution and sale of the products.
Patients on ranitidine containing products are to contact their Healthcare Provider to advise them
on alternative treatment.
The members of the public especially Healthcare Providers are advised to be vigilant and contact
the nearest NAFDAC office with any information on importation and distribution of ranitidine
containing products.
Healthcare Providers and Patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related
to the use of medicines to the nearest NAFDAC office, NAFDAC PRASCOR (20543 TOLL FREE from
all networks) or via pharmacovigilance@nafdac.gov.ng