I just saw this news come across my tracker, Have you guys seen this already?
Foreign Firm to Build Drug Plant in Abuja
Mar 14, 2007 (Daily Trust/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
A United States based company, Xechem International Inc., is to build a
seven-million-dollar plant in Abuja to produce sickle cell drug.
The plant will be engaged in commercial production of NICOSAN, a herbal
medication for the management of sickle cell disease.
The drug, developed as NIPRISAN by scientists at the National Institute for
Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) at Idu, near Abuja, is a
non-toxic natural herbal drug with extracts from plants derived in Nigeria.
"We have already secured a 1.2 million dollar- loan from the Nigeria Export and
Import Bank (NEXIM) for investment in the construction of the plant," the
chairman of Xechem International Inc., Dr. Ramesh Pandey, told the North America
correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York at the weekend.
"We are again talking with NEXIM Bank because they promised us another five
million dollars, while the U.S.-EXIM Bank is also working on a facility for us
to ensure the immediate take-off of the project."
He said the facility, to be located at SHESTCO Technology Park in Gwagwalada,
Abuja, would be one of the most modern and state-of-the-art research and
development drug plant in Africa.
Pandey said the plant would produce the sickle cell drug, formulated by NIPRD,
and patent it to his company on commercial basis.
"We are working hard to bring NICOSAN to markets in Nigeria and subsequently to
the US and other countries," he said.
On how he acquired the production rights, the company executive stated: "In
2002, I signed an agreement for the transfer of exclusive ownership and rights
for the Research and Development, production and worldwide sales and marketing
of NIPRISAN to Xechem International Inc.
"Thereafter, the Board of Directors of Xechem International Inc., agreed to
register Xechem Pharmaceuticals (Nigeria) Limited in 2002 to develop NIPRISAN as
NICOSAN for marketing in Nigeria and worldwide."
He said the plant, due to its closeness to raw materials, would run on full
capacity and provide "plenty of opportunities for Nigerian farmers and so it
will create employment for a great number of unemployed persons".
"As soon as the drug plant starts rolling out, it will earn Nigeria foreign
exchange," he said.
"Meanwhile, we are already producing this drug on a smaller scale as we are
supplying the ones we are reproducing now to sickle cell patients."
On the potency of the drug, he said NICOSAN is not a curative drug.
Pandey also disclosed that "as long as the patient takes his or her dose daily,
there will not be crisis." "As a matter of fact, consistent use of NICOSAN
reduces significant incident of crisis".
NAN learnt that the drug has been granted Orphan Drug status by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration and the EU's European Medical Evaluation Agency, which
gives Xechem between seven to 10 years of exclusive production and marketing
privileges.
AI
