May & Baker signs contract manufacturing agreement with Sanofi Nigeria
Nigeria’s premier pharmaceutical manufacturing company, May & Baker Plc, has signed a contract manufacturing agreement with Sanofi Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi. Under the agreement, May & Baker will use her World Health Organisation (WHO) certified manufacturing facility to produce four product brands of Sanofi for sale in Nigeria and the West African market.
This agreement not only serves as a direct response to the call by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for pharmaceutical brand owners to localise their production by using locally available capacity to produce quality products in Nigeria but also a step forward in Nigeria’s quest for medicine security and self-sufficiency.
The products which May & Baker would manufacture for Sanofi include Flagyl tablets and Suspension and Tarivid tablets, anti-infective medicines and anti-malaria tablets such as Malareich.
The agreement was signed by Mrs. Folake Odediran, Sanofi’s General Manager and Country Chair Nigeria & Ghana, and Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, Managing Director/CEO, May & Baker Nigeria Plc. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Ms. Valeria Saviano, Sanofi’s Head of Supply Chain Africa; Mr. Sam Ohuabunwa, President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN); Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, DirectorGeneral of NAFDAC represented by Dr. Monica Eimunjeze, a director in NAFDAC; Mr. Femi Soremekun, President of NIROPHARM, and Mr. Frank Monumeh, Executive Secretary, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN), among other dignitaries in the healthcare industry.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Okafor noted that May & Baker invested heavily in setting up internationally standard production facility and obtained WHO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification to enable her extend services to other products owners who might wish to heed the call to localise their medicine production in Nigeria. He said the May & Baker facility had capacity to produce 6 billion tablets and 37.5 million 60ml liquid medicines annually.
“At the moment we are only able to utilise 50% of this capacity”, he said, “leaving a large room for other products owners who may want to use the facility”.
On her part, Odediran, said Sanofi was satisfied with the quality of May & Baker’s facilities and handling of their products.
“Building strategic partnership with May & Baker Nigeria Plc to support our local manufacturing ambition is based on M&B’s rich history of producing high quality medicines in Nigeria. It also follows rigorous due diligence exercise and successful compliance outcomes in line with local laws and our global policies,” she said.
Commenting on the agreement, Prof Adeyeye, Director General at NAFDAC said the May & Baker and Sanofi partnership was a synergy that would promote the localisation policy of the Agency and eventual attainment of medicine self-sufficiency. She urged other pharmaceutical companies to take a cue from the partnership.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.