(By Yusuff Moshood)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that the factory of Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited (Swipha) is now recognised to be compliant with WHO standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
According to the Chairman/CEO of Swipha, Mr Colin Cummings, the GMP compliant status granted the company came after a series of quality audits by the Inspection Unit of the WHO Prequalification Programme for Essential Medicines and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Swipha is the first Nigerian pharmaceutical company to be declared compliant with the WHO GMP. Dr. Deus Mubangizi, group lead, inspection services, pre-qualification team, signed the WHO letter confirming the new status of the company.
Pharm. Abbas Sambo, the deputy managing director further stated that the new status of the company has further demonstrated its leadership within the pharmaceutical industry, not only in Nigeria, but in the entire West Africa sub-region, as the first to be declared GMP compliant in the sub-continent.
He said that Nigerians and Africans can now continue to benefit from and access pharmaceutical products of international quality, manufactured by Africans from Africa.
Swipha manufactures, markets, and distributes pharmaceutical products that meet international standards. Swipha is the first pharmaceutical company in Nigeria to attain ISO 9001: 2000 certification.
Swipha was established in 1976 and has over 350 employees. The company supplies drugs to Federal Ministry of Health, state governments, parastatals and private markets. All the products are subject to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for Quality Control.
Swipha also distributes products of the following companies: BAYER Health Care, Basel, Switzerland, BIO-STRATH AG, Zurich, Switzerland.
