Bayer HealthCare and the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, have partnered to make Microgynon® Fe Oral Contraceptive available and affordable in Nigeria.
The Microgynon® brand, which is the world’s most widely used oral contraceptive, is now available in local pharmacies at a significantly lower price.
The reduced price was made public recently at a ceremony in Abuja, marking the innovative public-private partnership between Bayer HealthCare and USAID.
The partnership is designed to make more affordable family planning choices available to women through the private sector and address the growing demand for contraceptives and the overall sustainability of supply.
Family planning allows couples to plan their families as they desire, reduces the risks from unintended and/or high-risk pregnancies, and improves the health of mothers and their children by allowing time between pregnancies.
After the introduction of Microgynon® Fe in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Ghana, and Kenya, the Bayer-USAID partnership will expand the initiative to several more Sub-Saharan African countries by 2016.
Nancy Lawenthal, USAID Nigeria’s Director, Health, Population and Nutrition office, emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in helping governments meet their Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.
“We are pleased that this important initiative between USAID and Bayer Healthcare is being extended to Nigeria. The private sector has an important role to play in contributing to sustainable development and in this case, by ensuring that Nigerian women have access to a sustainable supply of quality, affordable oral contraceptives.
“Combined oral contraceptives are 99% effective when used consistently and correctly. It also provides women with a reversible method that is easy to discontinue and has a rapid return to fertility. Microgynon® Fe is being used by millions of women around the world and is well known and trusted by medical professionals,” said O.I. Akinola, Obstetrician/Gynecologist, and President of the OB/GYN Society of Nigeria.
Microgynon® Fe is manufactured in Germany by Bayer HealthCare and imported to Nigeria by CHI Pharmaceuticals.
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