By Madu C Chikwendu
History repeats itself. The Bubonic Plague or Black Death was brought to Europe from Asia by Italian merchants. It wiped out 40-60% Europe. The fatality rate of Covid -19 is two per cent.
Globalization is not just facilitating trade; it is also facilitating the spread of disease. Thus the Chinese brought the virus to Italy and an expatriate generously gave us a dose. Nigeria was already grappling with low oil prices and a budget deficit before the knockout punch from the pandemic. But every coin has two sides.
The pandemic has provided an opportunity for nations to take the spotlight away from the western countries, traditional stars of the new world order. Cuba has sent thousands of doctors to different parts of the world including Western Europe. China has become the modern day Santa Claus sending aid to different parts of the world.
Africa no de carry last, so Senegal has been “repping” on the global stage with their inexpensive $60 dollar testing kit. Tiny Madagascar grabbed a piece of the action with her herbal remedy selling for close to five hundred thousand euros a pop.
At least Chinese companies have become heavy beneficiaries. Shares of the hitherto obscure ZOOM have shot through the roof alongside other Chinese companies producing Covid -19 related products ranging from surgical masks to ventilators. They have been buying up distressed companies all over the world. To the extent that some European countries including Italy have enacted laws to prevent foreign ownership of “strategic” companies and sectors.
While Brazil struggles to find burial space as the country with the second highest number of fatalities following the US, beneficiaries from the Covid 19 value chain are crying to the bank. Alexander the Great identified the futility of untying the Gordian knot. He simply cut it with his sword. This remains my best example of thinking outside the box.
Dr.Patrick Dakum, CEO Nigerian Institute of Virology has pointed out that “the battle requires an interdisciplinary approach involving Epidemiology, immunology, Virology”. This multisectoral approach is also reflected in the potential opportunities for medical advances employment, technological advancement, financial upliftment amongst others. The Corvid-19 value chain has created new opportunities in Testing, Monitoring, Management and Personal Protective Equipment.
The United States has invested one billion dollars each in pharmaceutical companies Sanofi (France) and AstraZeneca (UK). Indeed the partnership between the two companies has yielded a vaccine that is at the stage of clinical trials.
Sanofi CEO Oliver Bonillo has stated that the partnership can produce a maximum of six hundred million doses annually. Already the “sharing of the booty “is causing problems in France where the government has waded in to insist that the drug must be made available in France first.
The medical sector has been on the frontline of benefits .At onset of the outbreak there were just five test centers today Nigeria boasts of more than seventeen plus the ongoing accreditation of private test centres.
Lagos state which accounts for over forty per cent of the infections also leads with about eleven test centers .Infectious diseases management skill sets have been developed , improved and sustained. Medical facilities have generally been upgraded with exponential growth in bed spaces.
Dr.Michael Oyabanji Paul MD of MOPSON Pharmaceuticals said emphatically on national television that: “There is nothing Nigeria needs as far as medical security is concerned”. This is clearly a reference to potential capacity.
It is a well-known fact that all drugs come from plants. Indeed ninety per cent of the world’s bio diversity is found in just about ten per cent of the earth mainly in the tropics. Experts have said that there are at least three products relevant to vita medicine available in each state of the federation. The pharmaceutical industry operates on four levels: Finished pharmaceutical products, Formulated pharmaceutical products, Active pharmaceutical ingredients with Research and Development as the highest level”.
Meanwhile there is an abundance of starch in Nigeria which is an active pharmaceutical ingredient…we have gone ahead to identify and develop non edible starch which is available in many states of the federation” says Dr. Peter Adigwe . Nigeria is said to be at just level two meaning that all the ingredients are imported and then formulated in the country. Adigwe sums it up, “Water is the only local input in the pharmaceutical drugs manufactured in Nigeria”.
India shares a lot of similarities with Nigeria except advancement. India is the world’s largest producer of generic drugs and thus is the biggest producer of Hydroxilchloroquine. They banned the export of the drug which is used in the management of Covid -19. US President Donald Trump had to blackmail India to export the drug to the US. This is every entrepreneur’s dream, customers begging for your product.
Nigerian scientists have invented Ventilators. This feat has been achieved not just in the ivory tower but also at Nigeria Institute for Technology Development and Acquisitions. Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing has offered to repurpose their production line for Ventilators. More than nineteen applications for the management and cure of Covid -19 are being processed at National Agency for Food and Drug Application and Control NAFDAC.
The successful trial of the British drug Dexamethasone should be an inspiration. Production of testing equipment is yet another opportunity. Guido Vanham former head of Virology at Institute of Tropical Medicine at Antwerp, captured the importance of testing succinctly “test trace ..isolate…to get to a fundamental solution we need first and foremost to test more people”.
This strategy has been very successful in many countries particularly South Korea. What does it take to produce a test kit and a reagent? If Senegal can do it, then we can equally do it. Molecular and Serological test kits can be produced.
Nigerians are actively involved in the scientific advances related to the pandemic all over the world, Nigerians have demystified the production of Hand Sanitizers, Face Masks and related equipment. The price of face masks has crashed from an all-time high of about six hundred naira for the simplest one to about one hundred naira!
Cross River state has blazed the trail in the industrial production of face masks and Personal Protective Equipment. What then is the problem? We have the raw materials, the skills, the production capacity and even the funding? I know the CBN Covid -19 Fund has provision for manufacturing but does it accommodate Start Ups?
”Results are gained by exploiting opportunities not by solving problems”-Peter Drucker
*Madu C. Chikwendu (08023238203 mcchikwendu@gmail.com)
Filmmaker /Creative Industry Specialist/Public Policy Adviser
