The Managing Director of Daily Need Group, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Nigeria, Dr. Oluwatosin Jolayemi, has said that the Federal Government’s recent ban on codeine will only aggravate, rather than stop the abuse of the substance among youths in the country.
Jolayemi said this during a briefing held to announce the repositioning of the company’s popular brand, De-Deon Syrup of Haemoglobin, in Lagos on Tuesday.
Arguing that the ban would not be deemed wrong if it were in relationship to the abuse of substances generally and not codeine, he said, “If the Federal Government bans codeine, it is not the banning that will solve the problem of its abuse. Instead, the ban will drive codeine into the underground market and the government will lose control.”
Jolayemi also noted that pharmaceutical companies in the country were having a tough time dealing with issues related with human capital.
He said, “I think that the major issue that the pharmaceutical industry is facing now is human capital. If you are able to get over the issues around irregular power supply and finance, you still have to face the human capital issue.
“The problem is that we have too many people in Nigeria who lack the qualification and prerequisite skill to execute all the things they ought to do. So, you find that you are consistently having issues with set targets and attitudes.”
He said that unfavourable government policies had further compounded the problems encountered by drug manufacturers in the country.
At the event, actress Zainab Balogun was unveiled as the new Brand Ambassador for De-Deon’s syrup.
Speaking on the repositioning of the syrup, General Manager of Daily Need Group, Sola Adeyi, noted that De Deon had over the past 35 years maintained its basic unique selling point. He said, “As of today, De-Deons is ranked number one blood tonic in Nigeria with an annual capacity of 40 million bottles. It has presence in no less than 7.5 million households across the nation.”
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