Emzor, EIB’s €13.85m Deal Boosts Medicine Self Sufficiency

James Emejo in Abuja

Nigeria’s leading indigenous pharmaceutical giant, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited has signed a €14.85 million-euro financing deal with the European Investment Bank  (EIB) to boost local production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) in a bid towards achieving medicine self-sufficiency in the country.

The deal was consummated over the weekend at the European Union-Nigeria Strategic meeting

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, said “Today marks yet another milestone in the annals of the EU-Nigeria development cooperation.

“The EU-Nigeria relations is one of the most vibrant development partnerships in terms of volume, thematic interventions, modalities and geographical spread in deployment of resources.

The EU-Nigeria Strategic Dialogue is happening at the take-off of the current Administration in Nigeria and presents opportunities for proper articulation and consolidation of priorities in our partnership.”

The partnership with Emzor is a significant step towards accelerating treatments against malaria and healthcare access across Nigeria and the African continent and reducing the dependence on the importation of essential medicines.

The funding is to specifically support the manufacture of API in Nigeria, of which the pharmaceutical giant is a pioneer, with the company’s API factory in Shagamu set to begin production of about 400 metric tonnes of APIs annually from by Q1 2024.

The company’s API factory will produce Artemether, Lumefantrine, Sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine.          

Essentially, the Emzor API loan signature under the COVID-19 essential manufacturing envelope, is a private sector operation to finance the construction of an API manufacturing plant for the production of anti-malarial drugs.