Xechem International Inc. (fka XKEM)

[montanus]

Nigeria Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2 2011
Date: Feb, 2011

Q211 has proved to be a difficult period for Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical market. In December 2010, leaked US embassy cables indicated that Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, had hired investigators to unearth evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general. Action taken by the company was alleged to have stemmed from a desire to persuade him to drop legal action over a controversial drug trial involving the antibiotic Trovan (trovafloxacin) in 1996 for treating children with meningitis. The subsequent public outcry from these revelations has hurt Pfizer’s public image in Nigeria. This is likely to impact the company’s sales in the short term and slow the approval process for new products from multinational drugmakers.

Also in December, Edo State government began the construction of a modern hospital ward at Edo State Specialist hospital in Nigeria, while November 2010 saw construction begin for a multi-billion naira healthcare facility in Kano State, primarily paid for with the money from the 2009 Pfizer lawsuit settlement.

In January 2011, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)’s Ebonyi State chapter began an indefinite strike, saying the action was a result of the government’s refusal to pay the consolidated medical salary structure (CONMESS) to doctors. Physicians argue that an increase in wages is needed to stem physician emigration to developed countries. In November 2010, the governor of Nigeria's Niger State increased the wages of healthcare workers by 180% in an effort to retain more staff.

In December 2010, Karniyus Gamaniel, director of the Nigerian Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), announced that production of the phytogenic (plant-derived) sickle cell disease (SCD) drug Nicosan (an ethanol/water extract of Piper guineense seeds, Pterocarpus osum stem, Eugenia caryophyllus fruit and Sorghum bicolor leaves) 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.

Over 200,000 children are born with SCD in sub-Saharan Africa every year and there are an estimated 4mn people in Nigeria with some form of the disease, according to AesRx, a company developing SCD treatment Aes-103 (5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural). Currently, the main treatment for SCD is Droxia (hydroxyurea), which was approved in 1998. However, not all patients respond to this drug and some experience adverse effects, including myelosuppression (suppression of the body’s production of bone marrow). This lack of available drugs presents an opportunity to drugmakers, especially as the World Health Organization (WHO) has granted almost every SCD drug orphan status to help address the immediate healthcare need.

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