Tinubu to sign executive orders to bring down costs of drugs

President Bola Tinubu will sign executive orders to bring down the prices of pharmaceuticals, the federal government has said.

The Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday in a post on X by Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy.

Alausa said the executive orders will provide immediate succour to Nigerians.

The development is coming a month after Ali Pate, minister of health, said following the exit of major multinational pharmaceutical companies, executive orders to enable fair pricing of essential medicines had become imperative.

“On what the government is doing regarding the high cost of pharmaceuticals, Mr. President has asked us to come up with a set of Executive Orders that he is going to sign to provide immediate succour to Nigerians about the high cost of pharmaceuticals,” the minister said.

“And these executive orders will get to the President’s table in the next few days. And that is the short-term solution to bringing down the cost of high pharmaceuticals and medical consumables that the citizens are experiencing currently.

“We are also working on medium-term solutions and long-term solutions.

“For us at the ministry of health, we are collaborating with the ministry of industry, trade and investment, and others to develop medium and long-term plans so that the situation we suddenly find ourselves in will not be here ever again.

“This cost of high pharmaceuticals that we are noticing now is due to inadequate planning in the past, but we are working on plans and solutions that will be durable and sustainable.”

According to Alausa, the president is very committed to getting to the “end of this problem very quickly”.

“As we know, the president made a lot of campaign promises to revamp, improve, and put the healthcare system of Nigeria on a sustainable pathway,” he added.

“As we can see, Mr. President is meeting a significant chunk of his campaign promises, and he is going to meet all of his promises. The healthcare budget for 2024 is the biggest ever that we have had in the history of Nigeria.”