PSN Lagos raises alarm over soaring drug prices, salary disputes

…says Tinubu’s policy fails to address problem
By a Chioma Obinna

The Lagos State Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN),Pharm. Oyekunle Babayemi, has warned that the Federal Government’s policies have failed to address the escalating prices of drugs in Nigeria, leaving millions of citizens stranded and at risk.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the PSN Scientific Week held yesterday in Lagos , Babayemi declared that President Bola Tinubu’s executive order of June 2024 intended to reduce drug costs had collapsed under weak implementation and entrenched systemic problems.
“Despite the seemingly good intentions of government to crash drug prices, we are now facing an unprecedented increase in drug costs and, in some cases, a scarcity of life-saving medications,” Babayemi lamented.
He recalled that the PSN had earlier warned the government and Coordinating Minister for Health, Prof. Ali Pate, that drug prices could not be reduced in the short term through executive fiat since the pharmaceutical value chain was still heavily dependent on imports.
According to him, government agencies such as NAFDAC, the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria have “chosen to look the other way while Nigerians are continually shortchanged.”
Babayemi accused NAFDAC of worsening the crisis through multiple fees for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections at foreign sites.“The financial burden of GMP inspection fees, pegged at $10,989 for the first player to a site and $5,000 for subsequent players, is monumental injustice. It is not regulation; it is revenue generation at the expense of the people’s health,” he declared.
He warned that the planned Track and Trace policy of NAFDAC would further drive up drug prices by as much as 70 to 85 per cent, pushing essential medicines out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians.
The PSN chairman therefore called on President Tinubu to urgently constitute a Presidential Committee on the Pharma Sector, headed by a registered pharmacist, to deliver sustainable solutions.
Speaking on the health sector salary dispute, Babayemi condemned the latest circular of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, dated August 19, 2025, which he said unfairly entrenched salary relativity in favour of physicians.
“The Federal Government cannot impose unlawful scripts on citizens of Nigeria. Section 25 of the Trade Union Act forbids a non-member of a trade union from negotiating collective agreements for another union. What has happened here is a clear violation,” he stated.
He noted that the circular effectively upgraded members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) above their counterparts on CONHESS, thereby creating “a relativity within a relativity” that could truncate the professional destiny of other health workers.
“This climax of absurdity, where persons on the same grade levels in the health sector earn different salaries in favour of physicians, is not justifiable and will be resisted so that it does not stand,” Babayemi warned.
The Lagos PSN boss reiterated the Society’s commitment to advocating policies that will ensure access to affordable medicines, equity in the health sector, and better working conditions for all health professionals.

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