More pharmaceutical companies are expected to approach the Nigerian Stock Exchange for listing in order to boost their capital base and enhance their operations, the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria has said.

The association said this on Wednesday in Lagos when its leadership visited the NSE and performed the closing gong ceremony.

The National Chairman, AIPN, ’Gbenga Falabi, who spoke on the floor of the Exchange, said the visit was to facilitate the listing of the interested pharmaceutical companies.

Stressing that health care companies had limited visibility on the Exchange because only few of them were listed, Falabi said efforts were being made to change the situation.

He said, “The industry seems to be public shy and we need to break this by bringing a good number of healthcare companies to list on the Exchange.”

Falabi, who was at the Exchange in company with the Group Managing Director, Emzor Pharmaceuticals Limited, Dr. Stella Okoli, explained that the goal was possible as the industry had huge potential.

He explained that considering that Nigeria had a population of 170 million people, if N12,000 was spent on health care for every Nigerian annually, that would amount to more than N2tn annually.

“This alone tells of the potential in the industry,” he said, adding, “The industry is doing quite a lot in terms of growth and for the pharmaceutical industry worldwide the growth is in the Africa region.

According to him, the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria is in the forefront of the growth and it will continue to drive the growth.

On the progress made in the industry, he said, “Recently four of our companies were accredited with the WHO GMP certification and this is preparatory to the pre-qualification to Malaria, HIV, Tuberculosis products and many more companies are line up to be accredited.”

Of the four companies, May and Baker Nigeria Plc and Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc are already listed on the Exchange, Falabi said.

In all, five pharmaceutical companies are listed on the Exchange. In addition to May and Baker and Neimeth, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Evans Medical Plc and Fidson Healthcare Plc are listed on the Main Board of the Exchange, contributing almost N50bn to market capitalisation.

There have been increased efforts in recent years by market regulators to get more companies to list on the Exchange in order to increase the depth of the market, albeit with little success.

In 2014, only three companies were listed on the Exchange: two, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc and Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc, on the main board; and one, Omoluabi Savings and Loans Plc, on the Alternative Securities Market board.

Source : Punchng