On Saturday. 27 April, 2024, the management and staff of Superior Pharmaceuticals Limited hosted their distributors to a business parley, tagged “The National Distributors’ Forum, at The Safron Hotel, on Joel Ogunnaike Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos. It was an event that was graced with verve and felicitations, as outstanding distributors were presented with awards for their performance in the previous year. While hoping for a more prosperous 2024, the Managing Director of the company, Pharm. Ike Okeke, spoke to Patrick Iwelunmor on the purpose of the parley and the mission of Superior Pharmaceuticals Limited. He also bared his mind on the Nigerian pharmaceutical business climate, amidst other pressing national issues. Excerpts:
Sir, you are holding the distributors’ forum today. What really do you intend to achieve with this event?
The intention is to educate and enlighten our distributors and give them more insights into our products, especially the proper uses of these products. It is also to let them know that we need to work together – we should help them grow their businesses, while they also help us grow our business.
So, we are looking for a consequential partnership that will make sure that our products are available at affordable prices. This is our main focus for the meeting today.
What has sustained you in business despite the very obvious challenges facing importation of pharmaceutical products into Nigeria?
It is our persistence and the belief in this country. If we can’t do it, nobody can do it for us. I look at it from the perspective of nation-building and patriotism. If it was just profit-making, I believe we could have closed shop a very long time ago. We are in this thing for the sake of our fellow citizens. We need them to live longest. We need them to have access to effective and affordable medication. We are committed to this, no matter how long it takes. Rome was not built in a day, and so we will keep building this house, one block at a time.
Comparatively speaking, how do you rate the US, where you have resided for some time, and Nigeria, in terms of healthcare delivery?
Nigeria is not doing enough. I do not see any initiative on ground to show that the country is serious. The core of the problem here is that the individual bears the brunt in terms of the cost of medication. If you need to have surgery here, you would have to beg family members or sell personal property. Some people die because they cannot afford these surgeries.
We are not doing enough. The N16b earmarked for the construction of road from Lagos to Calabar, is it more important than the health of Nigerians? Health is wealth. We are not investing in healthcare. We are not investing in education. Somehow, we keep investing in things that do not impact on future generations and on our capacity to grow as a country.
When you go to India, you have the first, second and third generations of the same family living in the same house. Tell me, is it magic? It is investment in healthcare. Our government here is not doing enough. I don’t even think they are trying. However, I do hope that someday, we will get there. If we don’t invest in healthcare and education, every other thing we are doing will be a waste.
How have you been able to manage the menace of fake and substandard products that are proliferating the Nigerian drug market?
People usually gravitate towards fake and substandard products when desperation sets in, especially due to harsh economic conditions. If we don’t create employment and sources of income, we will continue to be affected by this problem because people will become more desperate to earn a living, irrespective of legitimacy or not. Some would say, they had better take half of something than zero of nothing.
It has affected us here because it is difficult to access quality medicines which usually come at a cost. The costs of these medicines which are beyond the reach of most people force them to go for the cheap ones that are mostly fake or substandard.
There are efforts to curb the trend. It is a work-in-progress and I hope it does not degenerate to a level where we can no longer manage it.
Do you have plans to manufacture your own products in future?
Yes and no. No because all of us cannot have manufacturing plants in Nigeria. Part of the business is for us to collaborate. If you already have the infrastructure to manufacture, I would rather have my manufacturing business given to you so that I can focus on distribution and creating awareness, letting people know.
In a situation where all of us have factories, there would be underutilisation. For me, it is better to give that business to a competent local manufacture instead of us doing it ourselves.
How often do you train and improve the capacity of your staff?
We believe that training is core. You can’t give what you don’t have. As a matter of fact, we are doing monthly training and then, we also do mandatory annual training. We also bring in consultants to train our staff.
You know, we partner with sales and marketing experts, like Pharm. Tunde Oyeniran, to upgrade the knowledge and skills of our staff. He does a lot of training for us. In fact, I have also benefitted from Pharmanews training. Before I started running this company, I had to take some management training from Pharmanews back in the days.
I needed those trainings to be able to brush up my knowledge of the local pharmaceutical industry because I had been outside in the US for so long. So, we strongly and passionately believe in training.
How have you been weathering the storm of the forex crisis, especially in your importation activities?
The truth is that the forex crisis has limited our growth. However, we are not giving up. We will continue to work with whatever is available. We have been able to reach an understanding with our manufacturer to be patient with us. We are managing but we know we can do better. In a situation whereby you are given very little opportunity, you just have to do your best.
What is the most fundamental thing you would like the Nigerian government to do to make life better for citizens, beyond healthcare delivery?
Government should reform the civil service. The civil service is the greatest threat to the progress of the country. Incompetent and corrupt people have populated that sector.
When CBN intervened and decided to give loans to manufacturers, some persons cornered the effort and insisted manufacturers must pay 20 per cent before they could access the funds. Many manufacturers turned down the offer because somebody in the office, doing nothing, wanted to make money off citizens who are actually working for the progress of the country.
We need a serious and working civil service system in the country. Other sectors of the Nigerian economy will benefit if the civil service system is sanitised.
