Health
Pfizer, Sickle Cell Group Seek Government’s Support
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Government has been urged to give more support to treatment, management and control of sickle cell disease in Nigeria.
This plea was made by the Sickle cell Support Society of Nigeria (SCSSN) and a leading pharmaceutical firm, Pfizer.
Speaking at a conference organised by SCSSN in support of Pfizer in Enugu last week, Professor of Hematology at the Muhumbili University of Tanzania, Lucio Luzzatto, who was the keynote speaker, echoed sentiments shared by others that government must pass a bill on sickle cell control and management to better insure the life of the people living with the disease.
On his part, Medical Director of Pfizer, Dr Kodjo Soroh, submitted that the high death rate of sickle cell disorder can be prevented through proper management and increased disease awareness programmes in rural areas.
He said there is no way government can better manage the situation without making policies that will guarantee treatment for people with the disease.
The Medical Director stressed that Pfizer will continue to support activities on how policies can be improved to adequately impact on Sickle cell patients.
According to a Professor of Paediatric Haematology and Chainman, Sickle Cell Support Society of Nigeria, Professor Adekunle Adekile, government need to be fully involved in order to reduce the burden of the disease in the communities.
He also identified poor leadership on the part of the government as being responsible for the snail paced action against Sickle Cell in Nigeria and called on the National Assembly to revisit the Sickle Cell Act brought before the house four years ago with a view to passing it.
“The chunk of the problem lies on the Government because over the years, they have paid lip service to Sickle Cell Disease control and management.
“Government should make policies on SCD a serious one so that life of patients can be insured. The National Assembly should revisit and possibly pass the Sickle Cell Act to ensure that people with the disease are covered”, he said.
According to Prof Adekile, Sickle Cell is a disease that is common all over the world, particularly in Nigeria which has the largest burden with a total number of 1,500 children born every year with the disease.
Prof Adekile said that the problem of Sickle cell is pervasive and many of the patients live in the rural areas, pointing out that the care in the tertiary or secondary centres are not enough.
He regretted that the government has not paid adequate attention to tackling Sickle Cell Disease noting that the disease cannot be controlled until a comprehensive National policy for the Control and management of the patients is introduced.
On her part, the Director, Corporate Affairs Pfizer for Sub-Saharan Africa, said the community networking is critical to achieving the aim of reducing the burden of Sickle Cell in our communities. She noted that Sickle Cell is not a death sentence even as she advised parents to always identify with organisations that are committed to tackling the scourge.
Also speaking during the conference, the Director, Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centre in Ghana, Professor Kwaku Frempong said that most people who are born with Sickle Cell disease in Africa are not diagnosed and many of them die as children. He observed that Government are not aware of the impact of SCD on childhood mortality while noting that there is no country in the whole of Africa that has programmes for new born screening.
“Our Government must step up measures and provide some supplements so that people can be treated as the medical cost is usually beyond what people can manage,” he said.
The Marketing Officer of Assene-Laborex Limited, a subsidiary of Biomedomics, Pharm Santos Onuigbo, charged young people to know their genotype early enough before going into marriage, adding that the company is committed to ensuring that people get the awareness about their state and better treatment against the disease.
He maintained that the company is partnering with Non-Governmental Organizations to get maximum grassroots mobilisation against the disease.
A participant at the conference, Miss Grace Ocheigo, a student participant from Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU was all praise to SCSSN for another opportunity to interact and meet people that would have cost much to meet were it not for the meeting. The student participant said the student have a greater role to play in curbing the burden of the disease.
“I want stakeholders to use students in the campaign to reduce the burden of the disease in the country because they are more vibrant and are closer to SCD patients that are older people.
“Young people relate more their problems to their peers and when these students are speaking it will have more effects because youths are naturally keen to listen to their mates on an issue. By so doing, they open up, the students will then know how to follow them up” she said.
She appealed to the Government and the NGOs to make screening materials available to medical students so that they can be fully engaged in the process in as much as grassroots mobilisation is concerned.
Other participants at the conference praised the meeting and said it gave them the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to clinical practice which were answered by seasoned practitioners.
They also said the meeting enabled them to network and be involved in collaborative research into new trends in Sickle Cell disease.
Sickle Cell is a disease that is not as popular as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, but tons of babies born each year around the World inherit the disorder according to reports.
The disease is got by inheriting two copies of a defective gene from each patient. In the process, the red blood cell gets collapsed, forming a crescent moon-like shape, which make it difficult for oxygen to be transported to all parts of the body.
The conference drew participants, stakeholders, partners and sponsors from different part of the world.
The programme, themed ‘Reducing the burden of Sickle cell disease in our communities,’ was anchored on raising awareness for Sickle cell disease, increasing the understanding of the disease among the communities health workers, to review the activities of the society since the last one held was two years ago, with a view to hearing from SCSSN members who were sponsored on scholarship to pursue their post-graduate degrees in Brazil, to outline research and training priorities, update current level of knowledge about the different aspects of the pathophysiology and management of Sickle cell and to hold a meeting of the West African Sickle Cell Network, high Nigeria is a host country.
The 3-day conference was kicked off with a pre- conference workshop with community health workers in the State.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Gates Foundation has awarded a $5 million grant to Axmed, a healthcare technology company transforming how lifesaving medicines are procured across growth markets.
The financial support will be deployed as a matching fund, providing a 1:1 match on government procurement of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) commodities through the Axmed Medicines Platform.
The fund is part of the global health movement to expand affordable access to high-quality medicines.
It is expected to unlock up to $10 million in MNCH procurement across a selection of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“It aims to strengthen national procurement capacity by offering Ministries of Health near-term liquidity, access to quality-assured MNCH commodities, and the benefits of pooled procurement and aggregated demand – driving both cost-efficiency and supply security,” the company said in a statement shared with Business Post.
The initiative was announced during a high-level roundtable held alongside the 78th World Health Assembly, which convened Ministers of Health, national procurement leads, and representatives from key multilateral organizations and philanthropic partners.
“Reducing the number of preventable deaths of mothers and babies is key to our work in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Ms Cynthia Mwase, Director of Health, Africa, Gates Foundation.
“This partnership with Axmed and local health leaders is an important step forward in ensuring that life-saving innovations reach the communities where they can make the greatest difference – so that more families can experience healthy pregnancies, safe births, and strong starts to life,” she added.
Every year, 287,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth complications, and 2.3 million newborns die in their first month—despite the availability of proven, cost-effective interventions. Weak procurement systems, constrained budgets, and fragmented supply chains continue to limit access to essential MNCH commodities across low-resource settings.
The current global liquidity crunch, coupled with reductions in donor funding, has made it harder for governments to secure the medicines they need. This grant responds to that challenge—unlocking immediate financing while enabling longer-term procurement reforms.
“Through our partnership with Axmed, the Government of Rwanda has shown that meaningful improvements in the efficient and sustainable delivery of high-quality medicines across multiple therapeutic areas can be achieved.
“Now, through this matching fund, our partnership will expand this impact even further, reaching the most vulnerable with urgency and precision. This matching fund is a strategic step forward in reimagining procurement in a new era of global health: smarter, faster, and designed to deliver measurable results across the entire health system in collaboration with partners who are both innovative and purpose-driven “ said Dr Loko Abraham, Chief Executive Officer for Rwanda Medical Supply.
Axmed’s digital marketplace connects institutional buyers directly with vetted suppliers, aggregating demand across countries and consolidating procurement at scale.
In 2024, Ministries and other procurers using the platform achieved average savings of 20–30 per cent, with select MNCH products realizing up to 80 per cent cost reductions.
Axmed also partners with global logistics providers to manage end-to-end delivery, from manufacturer to last-mile distribution, with full tracking and traceability. The platform has been deployed across multiple LMICs to support national and regional procurement strategies.
“This fund is a clear example of how catalytic financing and technology can work together to deliver immediate and lasting impact,” said Mr Emmanuel Akpakwu, Founder and CEO of Axmed. “Our goal is not just to deliver quality medicines faster and more affordably, but to help build more resilient and efficient procurement systems for the future.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has applauded the approval of the Medipool project, which has been floated to address drug access in Nigeria’s most underserved regions.
According to Mr Jobson Ewalefoh, the Director-General of ICRC in a statement signed by Mr Ifeanyi Nwoko, Acting Head, Media and Publicity, said the project also includes the initiative would improve the lives of Nigerians.
“Imagine a Nigeria where no child dies due to the unavailability of vaccines, where every health facility, no matter how remote,, has access to life-saving drugs.
“That future begins now, with the Medipool Project. Medipool is just the beginning under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are driving infrastructure delivery across all sectors, ensuring that no Nigerian is left behind.”
He added that with Medipool, President Tinubu was restoring hope to neglected regions by ensuring access to essential medicines, which “is a right, not a privilege, for all Nigerians.”
Mr Ewalefoh said the Medipool initiative, part of the Presidential Initiative for unlocking the healthcare value chain, aimed to centralise the procurement and distribution of essential medicines, vaccines, and consumables.
He said this would be achieved through a high-efficiency Group Purchasing Organisation (GPO).
Mr Ewalefoh emphasised that the project would not only promote transparency and affordability but also ensure that no region was left behind, particularly rural and hard-to-reach areas that had historically suffered from poor access to medicines.
He said in addition to Medipool, FEC approved the Ikere Gorge Hydropower project (Oyo State), which was originally initiated under the Obasanjo military regime.
Mr Ewalefoh said the dam would be redeveloped under a Finance-Build-Operate-Transfer (FBOT) structure to generate over six megawatts of electricity.
He said the dam would also provide potable water to towns like Iseyin and Saki and irrigate thousands of hectares of farmlands.
Mr Ewalefoh listed other projects as the Coastal Fisheries Terminal (Borokiri, Rivers State).
“This project aims to boost Nigeria’s fishery value chain through modern cold-chain logistics, job creation, and enhanced export capability.
He said these PPP initiatives aligned with Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to transform Nigeria’s infrastructure landscape, enhance service delivery, and stimulate inclusive economic growth.
Mr Ewalefoh said the ICRC would continue to provide regulatory oversight to ensure project transparency, value for money, and full alignment with global PPP standards.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal Government has approved a new policy known as Medipool, which targets lowering the cost of drugs and other medical consumables for Nigerians.
This was part of the decisions reached at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, said Medipool is a group purchasing organisation for competitive pricing and to be a supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria.
According to him, Medipool was developed to consolidate the demand from basic healthcare centres and federal tertiary hospitals, enabling the government to leverage bulk purchasing power to lower medical costs.
“Today, council approved Medipool; it’s a group purchasing organisation for competitive pricing and to be supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria, through the Federal Government’s intervention, the basic health care provision fund, but also eventually outside that, through federal tertiary hospitals, so that as a buyer, we can negotiate lower prices.
“So, it’s using the monopsony power of the government as a large buyer of those commodities, negotiating lower prices and then channeling those commodities,” he said, according to a statement.
Speaking further, the minister explained, “The scope includes, but it’s not limited to procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported, and import substitution and the financial management and payment systems, as well as capacity building and training and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs that are the quality that Nigerians can benefit and at a lower cost through, a public private partnership.”
He noted that the Medipool model was benchmarked against similar initiatives in countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia, emphasising that the administration aims to support local manufacturing, promote import substitution, and ensure Nigerians have access to high-quality, affordable medicines.
The FEC also awarded a N2.3 billion contract for the procurement of a state-of-the-art cardiac catheterisation machine for Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) in Sokoto.
The health minister said this will help the university hospital provide diagnosis and treatment services for heart and blood vessel problems, heart attacks, and irregular heart rates.
“The university hospital in Sokoto will now have this capability, which will serve the population in Sokoto State, the North West geopolitical zone of our country, and indeed the country. It will save lives, but also contribute towards reversing outbound medical tourism, because Nigerians will be able to access services that they were not able to,” he added.
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