Health Minister Lauds Ayade on Calapharm, Says Project Represents Deep Vision

The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has described the establishment of the Calabar Pharmaceutical Company (Calapharm) in Cross River State as a fantastic project that represents a deep vision.

Adewole who was in Calabar last Monday, for the state Health Summit, also inspected Ayade industrial layout which houses other factories including the pharmaceutical company.
The minister noted shortly after laying the foundation stone for the Ayadecare referral hospital that the layout showed good thinking on the part of the governor.

He said the initiative requires the support of the federal government.
According to him, “It is really an incredible and fantastic layout. And this, to me, represents vision, and that vision we must support. You can actually see things moving, drugs will flow to the referral centre and even flow out of the state to other parts of the country, so we are impressed with the layout.

“The factory will also delve into vaccine production which we seriously need in the country.”
He added that it will check a situation where, “almost all our vaccines come from outside the country.”

Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, who was represented by his Deputy, Prof Ivara Esu, affirmed that health remains one of the major policy thrusts of the present administration in the state in a bid to ensure that the people live healthy.

He said: “We want to make sure that we reduce medical tourism as much as possible from Nigeria. We don’t see why we should be going to India when we can equally have everything we need here from manpower point of view to the quality of treatment.”

Ayade thanked the health minister and the Senate Committee Chairman on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, for laying the foundation stone, inspection of projects and offering professional advice that will help in the delivery of the projects.

On his part, Tejuosho gave the Ayade-led administration a pat on the back for embarking on such a gigantic project which he said would check the dependence on other countries for the importation of vaccines.

Tejuosho stated that “recently, we introduced the legislative network that all the committees in the Houses of Assembly in the country to gather with the minister to know what other states are doing in health, so that we don’t keep on appropriating at the national level and doing the same thing in the states for proper cooperation.”