The Managing Director of May & Baker Plc., Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, has said that the ban by the Federal government on the production and distribution of codeine-based cough syrup has caused the company to lose N700 million in annual income and over N350 million in loses of raw material and finished products.

Okafor stated this at a press briefing in Lagos over the weekend. He urged the Federal government to help pharmaceutical companies to pay for the drugs and then, sell them under strict monitoring and control.

He said:“For the raw materials, we want to be allowed to convert them, if government also wants to take them over and monitor the usage, that is also fine.  That will be best for us.”

“We were compelled in the last two years to discontinue the production of some of our top cash cow brands as a result of age and change in national treatment protocols and policies.

“Some of the products involved are our Sulpha-based ranges, the Nivaquines and 221 brands. These products were responsible for over N1.2 billion of our annual revenue in 2017.”