President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have thrown their weight behind efforts to develop Nigeria’s capacity to produce advanced medical therapies locally, saying the country must reduce its dependence on imported healthcare products and reverse the growing loss of patients, capital and medical expertise to foreign countries.
Their positions came as Atunse Healthcare launched in Lagos with plans to manufacture and distribute advanced regenerative biologics in Nigeria, train local scientists and clinicians, and expand access to specialised treatments in a bid to reduce medical tourism.
Speaking as keynote speaker at the African Regenerative Medicine and Longevity Summit in Lagos, Dangote, represented by Fatima Aliko Dangote, Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations for Oil & Gas, Dangote Industries, said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the dangers of Africa’s dependence on imported medical products.
“COVID-19 taught us a very important lesson: dependence is a vulnerability,” Dangote said, noting that the pandemic demonstrated how countries prioritised their own populations during a global health crisis, particularly in access to vaccines, diagnostics and essential medicines.
He said Nigeria and other African countries must move from being consumers of advanced medicine to becoming producers of medical technologies.
“That is why initiatives like Atunse are important. We must begin to ask ourselves: how do we move from being consumers of advanced medicine to becoming producers of it?” he said.
According to Dangote, Nigeria possesses the talent, entrepreneurial energy and market needed to build a strong medical manufacturing ecosystem, but must bring together investment, science, enterprise and strategic partnerships.
He added that government and the private sector must work together to create the conditions required for the country to develop a sustainable healthcare industry.
“It should be built where public focus meets private capability, where policy creates an enabling environment, and enterprise brings execution, investment, innovation and scale,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who represented Governor Sanwo-Olu, said initiatives such as Atunse could help reverse the country’s brain drain by encouraging Nigerian doctors, scientists and other health professionals working abroad to return home.
“We need our own experienced specialists back to do this. When we start seeing initiatives like this, it starts to encourage our own experienced specialists to come back home,” Abayomi said.
He described regenerative medicine as an emerging frontier with significant potential for Nigeria but stressed the need to develop the science, institutions and skilled workforce required to take advantage of it.
Abayomi said government could not transform the sector alone, calling for stronger collaboration among universities, researchers, healthcare providers and private-sector investors.
Earlier, President and Chairman of Atunse Healthcare, Prof. Kamar Adeleke, said the company was established to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign countries for advanced medical care.
“For a generation, the most advanced medicine available has been something Nigerians travelled for — if they could afford the journey,” Adeleke said.
“Atunse was established on the position that they should not have to, and that the capability to deliver and eventually produce such medicine belongs on the continent rather than at the end of an import chain.”
Adeleke said Atunse was already treating patients across six service lines: aesthetic medicine, longevity and vitality, men’s wellness, women’s wellness, musculoskeletal support and neurological care.
He said Africa imports about 99 per cent of its vaccines and more than 95 per cent of its medicines, while producing less than one per cent of its vaccine supply.
He cited an estimated $2.39 billion spent by Nigerians on overseas medical treatment in 2024, but said the deeper cost was the number of Nigerians unable to access advanced care because they could not afford to travel.
Atuse , according to Adeleke, is a partnership between KweHealth LLC of the United States, which provides scientific and manufacturing expertise, and Tri-State Healthcare System of Nigeria, which contributes clinical delivery and institutional capacity.
The company’s strategy focuses on clinical delivery, advanced biomanufacturing, research and clinical translation, and regulatory capacity.
Adeleke said Atunse was working towards cGMP-grade production of advanced biologics in Nigeria, with a longer-term roadmap covering vaccines, cell therapies and gene therapies.
He stressed that manufacturing must go hand-in-hand with local expertise.
“A country which manufactures without training its own scientists, and without governing its own standards, has substituted one dependency for another,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Atunse Healthcare, Dr. Sola Oluwole, said Nigeria’s medical tourism challenge was costing the country more than financial resources.
“What Nigeria loses is not only money. It is the demand, the capital and the clinical talent that need never have left,” Oluwole said.
He added: “We intend to build it here: the treatment, the manufacturing, the distribution, and the people who will run all three.”
The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, represented by Khadijah Ade-Abolade, Director, Vaccines, Biologics and Medical Devices Registration Directorate, pledged regulatory support for responsible innovation.
Adeyeye said NAFDAC was restructuring to respond to emerging medical technologies while ensuring that new therapies met safety, quality and effectiveness standards.
She, however, warned against unverified claims and the marketing of unapproved stem-cell products by wellness centres and online vendors.
The launch comes amid growing calls for Nigeria and other African countries to strengthen local pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing, reduce import dependence and build a healthcare system capable of retaining patients, capital and medical expertise on the continent.
Ayodeji Ake
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