Industry / Nigeria
Production Of Nicosan To Restart, Competition Of SCD Drugs Increasing
January 2011 | Industry Trend Analysis
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BMI View: Specific health needs in emerging markets, which had previously been neglected because of the need to maintain shareholder value, may become commercially viable as average pharmaceutical expenditure increases. Competition for sickle cell disease (SCD) drugs is beginning to intensify as production of Nicosan (ethanol/water extract of Piper guineense seeds, Pterocarpus osum stem, Eugenia caryophyllus fruit and Sorghum bicolor leaves) resumes in Nigeria, and other drugs enter clinical trials.
Karniyus Gamaniel, Director of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), announced in December 2010 that production of the phytogenic (plant-derived) SCD drug Nicosan is to resume. The production and phase III trials of the drug were stopped when the government withdrew Xechem Pharmaceuticals Nigeria 's production licence in 2009, following accusations of misuse of funds.
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crime Commission alleged that a US$3.5mn investment from the Nigerian government, which was to be spent on drug manufacture, had been misused. Xechem had also borrowed nearly US$4mn from a Nigerian bank and US$4mn from a US financial institution, as well as taking investment from private shareholders, who were all defrauded by the company's subsequent collapse.
In November 2010, the NIPRD announced that it was temporarily ceasing research because of a lack of available funds. It blamed this shortfall on legal costs associated with Xechem filing a US$25mn lawsuit against the Nigerian government for withdrawing its licence, which a US court later dismissed.
The closure of the company and its production facilities has left many Nigerians without an affordable treatment for the recessive genetic disease, which BMI first reported on in March 2009. [1]
Gamaniel has said that production of Nicosan is resuming ...
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