Abuja: The Federal Government is actively pursuing the adoption of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and related gene technologies to facilitate access to advanced medical treatments in Nigeria. The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, emphasized this initiative during a ministerial interaction focused on emerging international technologies, organized in collaboration with partners in Abuja.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Salako expressed concern over Africa’s delayed adoption of innovative treatments. He highlighted the importance of engaging with cutting-edge science to bolster scientific capacity and transform healthcare delivery across the continent. ‘Across Africa, for far too long, our people are deprived of new and innovative treatments due to a lack of engagement with the potentials in our setting,’ Salako remarked.
Dr. Salako further elaborated that such interventions could significantly enhance scientific capacity and support the transformation of new technologies into impactful treatments for patients across African populations. He emphasized the government’s commitment to providing clinicians and scientists with the necessary partnerships and ecosystems to adopt global health technologies for local solutions.
He noted that the collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) is a testament to efforts aimed at strengthening health systems and ensuring medicine security. Salako pointed out that Africa remains the only continent yet to deploy CAR-T cell therapy at scale, stressing the importance of localizing this innovation with strong political commitment.
The minister outlined the next steps, which involve scaling the model across various professional and practice settings within Nigeria and across Africa. Dr. Obi Adigwe, Director-General of NIPRD, underscored the centrality of research and innovation in addressing Nigeria’s health challenges and advancing evidence-based healthcare policies.
Dr. Boro Dropulic, Executive Director of Caring Cross, highlighted the potential of advanced cellular and gene therapies to offer one-time curative treatments for severe diseases, including cancers and genetic disorders. He explained that these therapies involve modifying a patient’s cells to restore their ability to combat diseases, describing it as regenerative medicine.
Dropulic detailed the organization’s focus on technology transfer to enable local production of therapies within hospitals and specialized facilities. This includes training healthcare workers, supporting infrastructure development, and enabling local manufacturing of critical components used in gene therapies. He emphasized that local production would reduce treatment access delays and eliminate reliance on foreign facilities for advanced medical care.
By manufacturing locally, therapies can reach patients more swiftly, Dropulic noted. He highlighted that local manufacturing would develop skilled manpower, strengthen supply chains, reduce import dependence, and improve national health self-sufficiency. The initiative is expected to create high-value jobs, reduce medical tourism, and position Nigeria as a regional hub for advanced healthcare innovation.