According to the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the exit of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pharmaceutical company is not responsible for increase in prices of drugs in the country.
On Friday in Lagos, Prof Adeyeye spoke amid rumors that GSK’s departure had a negative impact on the nation’s drug prices.
The British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company GSK announced plans to end operations in the nation in August, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The company was founded in June 1971 and had been in business for 51 years in Nigeria.
Adeyeye said: “The first reason for the increment in the prices of drug is that the value of naira has depreciated.
“Before the planned exit of GSK from the country, prices of commodities general has gone up and some of the products GSK produced has decreased.
“From the regulatory perspective, we encourage local manufacturing and GSK have collaborated with local manufacturers. So it is not like they import everything.
“The issue of foreign exchange is huge for some of the multinational companies.
“They generate funds and it becomes difficult to repatriate the money back to their parent company where other developments will take place.”