President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday directed the setting up of an inter-ministerial committee to find how medicines and livestock drugs can be made available to the Nigerian public at reduced prices.

Receiving the executive board members of a pharmaceutical company, Graham Foggs Ltd at State House, Abuja, he reiterated his commitment to the improvement of the quality of lives of Nigerians.

The president in a statement by his Spokesperson, Femi Adesina charged the Ministers of Health as well as Agriculture and Rural Development to work with the company, short-circuit disruptive bureaucracy and brief him from time to time.

The company, led by Chief Sam Nda-Isaiah, seeks to make essential medicines and livestock drugs available to the public at significantly reduced prices.

 “It has been established that 70% of Nigerians cannot afford modern medicines produced by multinational pharmaceutical companies due to their high prices,” Nda-Isaiah said, adding that most of the companies operate at less than 30% of installed capacity

Graham Foggs Ltd plans to bring down the prices of most of the commonly used medicines by up to 60%, producing only generic medicines as against patented ones.

“This would be achieved without a single kobo subsidy from government, with Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or bulk raw materials imported from China and India for the approved local production companies in Nigeria,” Nda-Isaiah said.

He noted that the finished products would be sold at fixed prices to achieve the objectives of the programme, adding that millions of jobs would be created across the country as pharmaceutical plants would be operating at near-maximum capacity and this would be for medicines of all classes including livestock drugs to boost the agricultural sector.

It would be recalled that President Buhari had earlier reduced tariff on pharmaceutical raw materials and increased the one for finished imported products.