The management of Unique Pharmaceuticals Limited, one of the top pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Nigeria has stated its commitment to continually make quality its watchword, while striving to meet medicine need of Nigerians.
The company made the commitment recently when the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Moji Adeyeye, and other directors of the agency visited the Unique Pharma factory in Otta, Ogun State. The NAFDAC team had visited the Unique Pharma intravenous fluid plant 3 facility in Otta Ogun to see what the company is doing.
While speaking during the visit, the NAFDAC DG commended Unique Pharmaceuticals Limited for the efforts and investment put in place to service the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry. She however urged the organisation not to relent but continue to improve, saying quality is not a destination but a continuous journey.
She said “with what I have seen and based on what other NAFDAC directors have said, which is also based on what they have also seen, it shows that Unique is thinking quality. That doesn’t mean Unique is 100 per cent perfect, but they are on the right track. They are thinking quality all the time which is very important. Quality is very important because the health of Nigeria is the first and most important thing.
“Quality is very expensive though, but once you have it, it is no longer expensive, and it will start bringing in money, so quality and trade cannot be separated. We can see the effort Unique is putting in place. It is equally important to ensure that Good Manufacturing Practices are built into whatever you are producing and in fact, you cannot separate quality management system from good manufacturing practices. I commend unique”.
The Chairman of the company, Mr L.C. Wadhwani assured the agency that the organisation will continue to prioritise quality and improve on every area.
Also speaking with Pharmanewsonline, the Executive Director of Operations, Pharm. Lawrence Hunyingan expressed his pleasure for the DG visit, noting that the management of the company have resolved to prioritise quality and also take the company to greater heights continuously.
He said “Unique Pharma has come a long way. From small facility to a big facility. We appreciate the DG for her visit, with the new facility in place, it was really important that the DG of NAFDAC pays us a visit to see what we are doing by herself and the effort we are putting in place to enhance the growth of the pharma industry, so her coming has given us the requisite guide on the best practices in the pharma manufacturing in Nigeria. She has made a lot of comments and we will make amendment in the identified areas.
Also speaking, the Executive Director in charge of regulation and superintendent pharmacists, Pharm. Michael Dada, noted that the products from the intravenous fluid plant are all registered and already in the market, noting that the essence of the new plant, which is the third facility is to expand the company’s presence in the market, meet customers’ demand and also expand customer base.
“With the increased output, because our output is now more than double with the new plant, we have more capacity to satisfy the market and we are also looking at the possibility of expanding our customer to other country. Unique is the pioneering company to manufacture IV in the country using a “Form – Fill – Seal” technology and we have been doing that since 1988. We are the first indigenous company to use the technology. Since then, we have been improving and expanding our quality without compromising, so Nigerians can depend on us 100 per cent”, he said.
While expressing the commitment of the company to servicing the pharma market effectively, the Head Sales and Marketing, Mr Someshwar Shinde said “our products cover every part of Nigeria. We are in different areas. We have different depots. When the products are manufactured from our factory, we move them to all the depots. For instance, the depot in Lagos takes care of Lagos, the one in Kano and Abuja take care of the north. We have in Onitsha that can take care of the east and many other. We supply our products to many institutions and NGO across the country and our supply time is very fast. We are therefore using this opportunity to tell Nigerians that Unique Pharma is a Nigeria company for Nigerian people, we are investing in the company, supporting Nigerians and we want to take care of all Nigerians”.
