By STELLA KABRUK

Three firms – AMA Medical Manufacturing Company, Echitab Study Group Nigeria and Micropharm Ltd., UK – on Tuesday signed an MOU for the production of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) drugs in Nigeria.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the event, held at the AMA medical manufacturing company in Kudenda, Kaduna, signified a huge step in the nation’s efforts to produce the drugs locally.

Over the years, the drugs had been produced in Liverpool, UK, and Costa Rica with Nigeria having to take the live snakes to the producers who would kill them and remove the venoms.

The venoms are, thereafter, used to produce the ASV drugs which are, then taken to Nigeria.

The process has proved very tedious and expensive with the drugs usually very scarce and very expensive when available.

Efforts to get government to establish a firm to produce the drugs had proved fruitless with the victims of snakebite, mostly farmers, herders, hunters and other rural dwellers bearing the scourge that kills thousands every year.

Speaking at the MOU signing ceremony, Prof. Nasidi Abdulsalami, Chairman, AMA medical manufacturing company, said that the Mou was a huge leap that would help the country.

Abdulsalami said that the MOU represented a good initiative for public private partnership “which looks forward to the full participation of the federal and state governments, and other Nigerians”.

“We expect meaningful Nigerians that are blessed to contribute because it is a social investment aimed at saving lives.

“The ASV drugs are life saving products. We can never allow the drugs to vanish because Nigerians need them, especially the farmers and herders.

“The MOU signing today serves as the beginning of self-sufficiency for the product not only in the country, but the entire continent because countries look up to Nigeria for good leadership.

“I am proud to announce that the World Health Organisation has tested all the ASV drugs available in the world and found out that our ASV, for which we are developing this partnership today with micropharm, is the best.

“Micropharm products that are produced in the UK are the best; the second is the one produced by Costa Rica.”

He expressed gratitude for the collaboration, adding that the decades of suffering and helplessness because of the paucity of ASV drugs had come to an end.

“For 22 years, we worked hard to actualise the local production of ASV drugs. That dream has become real today.

“We want to have Echitab drugs available, affordable and sustainable,” he said.

Abdulsalami commended Dr Nandul Durfa, the Managing Director of Echitab Study Group Nigeria, for remaining steadfast and committed to the goal of ensuring the local production of ASV drugs in Nigeria.

“Today’s feat is an achievement we should all celebrate. Finally, we shall find a solution to a problem that has been disturbing us for long,” he said.

Mr Lan Cameroon, Chief Executive Officer of Micropharm, in his remarks, expressed gratitude for the signing of the MOU, and regretted the persistent scarcity of ASV drugs in the country.

He said that the quest for ASV drugs in the country started in the early 1970s when Prof. David Wanns of ABU, Zaria took a live snake from Nigeria to Liverpool where the first venom was removed for first production.

“In 1991, more than 30 years ago, Prof. Nasidi contacted a company in Kano which produced the first ASV drug, but it had side effects and had to be taken back to the laboratory to be purified.

“When it was brought back for another clinical test, there was no money and he made all efforts to see that it was done. The efforts took him to Micropharm which formed the success of the production.

He said that with the production of the ASV drugs in the country, the cost would drastically go down and the facility would be readily available.

Mr Marc Nassar of Von hram, in his remarks, said that the MOU would bring new technology into the country.

He said that his organisation was one of the best managers of technology and was the first to bring technology in the existing AMA plant.

He expressed hope that the collaboration would bring expertise to work.

Durfa, Echitab Study Group managing director, in his remarks, expressed happiness that Nigeria would soon have locally produced ASV drugs.

He said that the struggle had been long and tedious with a glimmer of hope in 2006 when then President Olusegun Obasanjo approved some money for the project.

“Unfortunately, the money did not come. We made a lot of efforts and approached successive governments, but all came to nought.”

He said that the local production would make the drugs cheap and available as the high cost of foreign currency had always made the cost of the finished products from overseas outrageous to the victims that are mostly poor.

Durfa commended AMA medical manufacturing company for offering to accept the challenge of producing ASV drugs, and promised to put in everything to ensure the partnership was successful.

“We shall work to ensure that the drug is available to Nigerians at all times,” he said.

NAN reports that the MOU was signed by Prof. Nasidi Abdulsalami for AMA medical, Lan Cameroon for micropharm, and Marc Nassar for Echitab Study Group Nigeria. (NAN)

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