PHAMARCEUTICAL INDUSTRY AND EVOLUTION IN NIGERIA.PART 8

When the then government introduced the infamous import licensing for every imported goods,including drugs,it altered the course of historical development in the industry.It was only aggravated by the emergence of politically punitive Structural Adjustment Program(SAP) in July,1986 as recommended by the international monetary fund(IMF).The former too was introduced or solely by political patronage.Those who had no experience and business with drugs,were given licence to import them and became overnight importers and drug producers denied access to foreign exchange or compelled to repurchase import licenses from forex smugglers and brief case merchants.A lot of distortion and chaos was introduced,with the emergence of this regime,pillaged effective drug distribution system and free for all importation became the norm.All sorts of fake,substandard products and counterfeit floodedlocal markets.Although,a couple of local producers sprung up like Barewa, Geonnasons,Mopson,Ashmina, Continental,Emzor and Afrik.