May & Baker Nigeria has announced plans to open its vaccine production factory in the second quarter of 2023, barring unforeseen circumstances.
Mr. Patrick Patrick Ajah, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of May & Baker, revealed this to journalists in Lagos.
According to him, Nigeria cannot continue to rely on western countries for vaccines because “the coronavirus pandemic has taught us that.”
He said, “Let me also use this opportunity to announce a milestone achievement in our Joint Venture with the Federal Government of Nigeria Biovarcines. On 14th September 2022, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the first part of the MOU of Biovarcines with the FMOH for the supply of routine immunization vaccines.
“This is the first/major step towards vaccine production in Nigeria, as this allows Biovaccines to commence the engagement with the chosen Technology transfer partners and subsequently initiate the design and construction of the greenfield project. We are optimistic that the groundbreaking ceremony for the vaccine production facility will happen before Q2 of 2023.
“As we speak we have already gotten the first order and that gives us some confidence that is going to happen. We are saying we cannot going to import; we know what happens with the issues we have as countries will take care of themselves first before they think of you. That is why we have signed the contract with companies that are going to support us, where we are now there should be no hindrance because May &Baker is paying the companies that are producing the vaccines. We just needed an agreement with the government that they are going to buy it once we produced it and we are hoping that is going to happen this time around.”
However, commenting on the profit after tax (PBT), he said it was severely impacted by the significant increase in the cost of goods and other operating costs.
He maintained that revenue was growing at 27 per cent; cost of goods was growing at 47 per cent on average and the cost of paracetamol API has doubled since last year.
He said, ”We were able to mitigate some of these costs with some marginal price increases, operational efficiencies driven by increasing volumes and better production planning and of course the reduction in admin expenses.”
