When President Bola Tinubu signed Executive Order to introduce zero tariffs, excise duties, and VAT on specialised machinery, equipment and pharmaceutical raw materials to bolster local production of essential healthcare products, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief hoping that the executive order will reduce price of drugs over the counters across the country.

Nigerians, especially those nursing one ailment or the other thought the government had given a lifeline that would reduce their spendings on treating their ailment. They also believed the executive order will reduce the prices of finished drugs to the final consumers.

However, few months down the line, reverse was the case as the executive order is yet to be implemented and this has made the price the drugs across the counters in the country gone up and, in most cases, out of reach of patients. It was gathered that after the signing, drug prices have gone up astronomically and patients now resort to local herbs to cure their ailment, thereby, worsening their current situation.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria’s inflation rate for the healthcare sector rose by 24.6% in the month of April, 2024 up from 19.5% same period in 2023. Different factors have contributed to the rising prices, including economic instability, currency devaluation, and disruptions in the global supply chain.

The depreciation of the Naira has also made it more expensive to procure drugs from international suppliers, leading to increased prices for consumers and healthcare providers. Reports further showed that the cost of medicines and medical devices in Nigeria has seen substantial increases over the past year. For instance, the cost of painkillers has surged by 200% while the prices of blood pressure monitors and related medications have doubled, increasing by 100%. Also, the cost of foreign-manufactured medicines has skyrocketed, with some prices increasing by up to 1000%.

Currently, diabetic patients are currently in a panic mood as prices of drugs rises by over 800 percent in the last one year. It was gathered that insulin price rises to N26,000 from N3,000 while glucometer hits N30,000 from N6,000 and patients have raised the alarm that they spend an average of N200,000 monthly to manage diabetes, thereby, leaving many struggling to afford the necessary medications to manage their condition. It was further revealed that the sharp rise in prices, coupled with the economic downturn, have placed a heavy financial burden on individuals living with diabetes, pushing some to forgo treatment or seek out hazardous alternatives.

Detailing the devastating impact of diabetes drugs price hike, the national coordinator for Persons Living with Diabetes in Nigeria and co-chair of the National Action on Sugar Reduction Coalition (NASR) Comrade Bernard Enyia said, “Two years ago, insulin cost between N2,500 and N3,000. But starting in January of this year, prices skyrocketed, first to N6,000 and then to N12,000, and by June, it was as high as N24,000 in some areas. In Cross River State, I bought insulin for N22,000; in Kano, it was N24,000; in some other states, it went up to N26,000.”

This price volatility has made it nearly impossible for diabetic patients to plan their expenses, as costs fluctuate unpredictably. “Sometimes the price will drop slightly, only to rise again,” Enyia lamented. The cost of glucometer, a medical device used to monitor blood sugar levels, has also soared. “A glucometer now costs around N30,000, up from N6,000, and the test strips used with them have also become significantly more expensive,” Enyia said. Enyia further highlighted the compounding costs associated with diabetes management.

“I consume three bottles of insulin per month, which alone costs me over N100,000. When you add the price of syringes, which has risen from N30-N50 to N600 each, the monthly details of the devastating impact of these price hikes become overwhelming. It’s not just insulin; there are also oral tablets that we need to take to help control blood sugar levels. Some months, I spend between N150,000 and N200,000 to manage my diabetes.”

The financial strain is forcing difficult choices, with many patients having to sacrifice basic needs or family obligations to attend to their medication. “More than 70 per cent of my income goes towards treatment,” Enyia revealed. “I’ve had to choose between paying for my children’s school fees and buying my medication because I need to stay alive to take care of them.”

Enyia further explained that the dire situation has led many patients to abandon proper treatment, turning instead to unregulated alternatives. “People are resorting to cheaper options like buying drugs from chemists or falling for misleading claims on social media about miracle cures. These so-called cures may temporarily lower blood sugar, but they do not address the underlying issue of insulin production,” Enyia said.

The Nigerian government’s efforts to alleviate the burden have been insufficient, according to Enyia. “Even with the president’s executive order to remove taxes on pharmaceutical materials for local drug production, it hasn’t helped much because insulin and glucometers are imported and remain at an all-time high.”

Also speaking, the Managing Director of May and Baker Nigeria Plc, Patrick Ajah, warned that the cost of medicines in Nigeria will remain high until the power and forex situations in the country improve. He reiterated that the executive order signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 28, 2024, exempting essential medical imports from duties and VAT, is yet to be implemented, despite being over two months old.

Ajah, however, attributed the high cost of medicines to local manufacturers’ reliance on imported Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and packaging materials, which are affected by the high and fluctuating exchange rate. His words, “When GSK left, prices of things like Ventolin Inhaler, which we know many asthmatic patients need, skyrocketed.

“Any asthma patient that goes into crisis and doesn’t have inhalers is going to die. There’s nothing you’re going to do about it, and the doses are very technical, there is no company in Nigeria that can make them because they don’t have the machine to make those inhalers.

“It used to cost about N1,800 when GSK was fully on the ground. The month they announced they were leaving. It was not available anywhere. It’s not just Ventolin, there’s Seretide and the others, also inhalers. The cost of Ventolin went as high as N25,000 and Seretide as high as N50,000.

“And some of the key reasons are because we’re still importing. Most of the APIs that we use are imported. I just came back from India. Most, if not all the APIs are imported including packaging materials and so many other things that we use to produce these medicines, they are imported.

“The difference you’re going to have is, if that product can be made by a local company like us, the cost will be less than if you were importing the finished product because you’ll be importing everything.

“When Nigeria floated Naira, the exchange rate went from N461 to a dollar, to N1,600 to a dollar. We’ve been struggling for some months now to buy dollars. The least we can get is N1,509. Multiply that increase by how much we buy active ingredients, like paracetamol.

“So, if you multiply it, you find out that most companies are not making a profit. And that’s why companies are collapsing. If the government doesn’t do anything about the exchange rate, I’m sorry to say the price of drugs will not come down.

“We have on several occasions held ourselves from doing price increases. The other time, it started coming down, it came down to N1,300, and we were rejoicing that it is coming down, but we know where it is now, over N1,500 to a dollar.

“Some months back, the government made an announcement and said effective immediately there are goods they are removing tariffs from. We all heard it, you know these things are said in the newspapers and on television and people are going to be expecting that, the price is going to go down tomorrow.

“As we speak, I’m in the committee that was set up to help the government on implementation. Since that time, it’s more than two months old. Nothing has been done.

“So yeah, we can make this announcement, but if it’s not implemented, nothing is going to happen; but having said that, even implementing that is not going to change much, because you’re just dealing with maybe 5 per cent of the problem.

“If the forex situation is not addressed, we’ll have a long way to go. Take customs in Nigeria for instance. They are in Nigeria and operate in Nigeria, but the moment the forex situation changed, customs changed tariffs based on the exchange rate, and so many other things.

“So that is what’s going on. But as local companies, it will still be much better than if you were importing the drug, because our own cost of operation, once we have covered that, we try as much as possible not to do an increase beyond what we think people can afford.

“We also need people to be able to afford our products. As we speak, and I’ll just say this and leave it at that – the cost of power has increased by over 300 per cent. So, as we speak, every month, like I said, I’m not going to put numbers. “But I know that a friend of mine who has a company told me that his cost for power is between N250 million to N300 million in a month. “This man is also going to need to recover the cost of producing the medicine. So, it is a whole lot. And I know it’s all driven by the forex situation. But we’ll keep doing our best in the areas where we can reduce prices to hold it on,” he stated.