As big pharma exits Nigeria, asthma patients face spiralling costs
Al Jazeera
The price of asthma inhalers has more than doubled amid scarcity and added costs after GSK exited the Nigerian market in 2023.
Ibadan, Nigeria — When Gloria Mofifoluwa’s friend informed her in March that the price of inhalers had risen in Nigeria, she did not think much about it.
The following week, when she went out in Ibadan city to replace her old Ventolin inhaler, the asthma sufferer was shocked to see that many pharmacies were out of stock and the only place it was available sold it for 7,500 naira ($5) – more than double the 2,800 naira ($1.86) she had paid months before.
This price jump – which followed the departure from Nigeria of a major health pharmaceutical – was a shock for the 24-year-old undergraduate student who earns a bit of money designing clothes. And the ripple effects were even worse.
Last month, while alone in her room at the university hostel and consumed by thoughts of her economic challenges, Mofifoluwa started hyperventilating and struggled to catch her breath.
Her roommate was away and there was no one to take her to hospital. All she had on her was an Aeroline inhaler, which she explained does not work as fast for her as the Ventolin she now struggles to get.
