IMPORTED MEDICINES VS MADE IN NIGERIA
It is a general consensus in Nigeria that imported products be it construction materials, food, appliances, electronics, machineries and so on; are more preferable and consumed. This is due to the perceived higher quality of imported goods compared to made in Nigeria products.
Though it is a more acceptable fact that imported goods are preferred, the reason imported medicine in Nigeria are more consumed is purely based on the fact that the majority of the medicines in pharmacies on Nigerian streets are imported. According to figures from the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and control shows that more than 70% of medicine found in Nigeria are imported.
Preferred important medicines by merchants are one the factors that makes it possible for clearing and forwarding business to thrive in Nigeria. By the way for clearing and forwarding services in Nigeria, you can consult Vagmon e-Grup & Logistics Ltd.
Most Nigerians do not really care about country of manufacture of most drugs. This is evident because unlike other products where you can order for goods that are not locally made, the same cannot be said about medicine.
This brings us to a comparison of the medicines found in Nigeria which are either imported or locally made. Through this article, we will briefly compare both made in Nigeria medicines and imported ones using different factors such which are relevant to its consumption.
Availability
Medicine is one of the most important commodity in Nigeria, as a developing country. This is because it is a vital good that helps to provide better health and reduce mortality rates in the country. And as such, medicine is easily made available to its citizens.
However, when making comparison between the availability of imported and made in Nigeria medicines, there seem to be quite a distance between both of them. According to different research and surveys carried out over the last ten years, data shows the clear variations. In public pharmacies surveyed, medicines which were produced locally were predominantly available compared to the imported ones.
Though this survey was restricted to particular medicines, it was ensured that medicines chosen for this survey were both produced in Nigeria and at the same time imported.
Price
The prices of purchasing medicines which were imported in Nigeria are found to be more expensive, compared to the locally made ones. It is easy to say this is expected because of the simple law of supply and demand.
The more available a commodity is, the cheaper it becomes and vice versa. According to the information provided earlier in this article, locally produced medicines are readily available compared to imported one. This directly affects prices of medicine too, and usually results in higher price of imported medicines as opposed to the cheap price of the readily available ones.
Quality
Research carried out over the years in major cities around Nigeria about medicines being sold in Nigerian pharmacies yielded interesting results. These results are quite on particularly with the quality of medicines found in other developing countries like Nigeria.
Results of extensive research showed that made in Nigeria medicines had way less quality compared to the imported medicines. Less qualityin locally made medicines is attributed to different reasons like counterfeiting, decomposition of active ingredients due to excess temperature and humidity, and finally poor quality assurance during the local production of these medicines.
Further research shows that some of the medicine had no active ingredients, some were excess and most had insufficient active ingredients.
In the case of imported medicines, however, most of the medicines found retained its quality. Only a few of the imported drugs had less than required active ingredients while none had excess active ingredients.
Summary
While it is clear that there are clear advantages which made in Nigeria medicines provide many of its users in terms of availability and cost, the most most important factor to look out for at all times should be quality. This helps to eliminate chance of relapse of diseases, especially the bacteria related ones which are quite common in Nigeria.
This article show just how much more needs to be done in terms of producing standard and quality medicine in Nigeria. This will help reduce the extreme dependency on drug imports in the nation, especially during this Pandemic.
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