Fidson Healthcare Plc has been chosen to develop and manufacture a generic model of Roche’s influenza antiviral drug, baloxavir marboxil, via a licensing association backed by the Medicines Patent Pool. The deal locations founder Fidelis Ayebae’s firm amongst a small group of world producers chosen for the programme.
Ayebae’s path so far began with an unlikely mixture. He earned a Higher National Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1976, later including an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Lagos, earlier than spending years at Citibank forward of founding Fidson in 1995. This grounding exhibits in what Fidson has constructed since.
The firm grew to become the primary West African producer of indigenous antiretroviral medication for HIV, alongside proton pump inhibitors and complicated infusion codecs, the form of technical file that makes a agency credible for a global deal like this one.
Fidson additionally grew to become the primary Nigerian pharmaceutical firm to cross N100 billion in income, finally reaching previous N119 billion. Revenue of that dimension doesn’t arrive from one product however buds off years of reinvestment in vegetation, regulatory techniques, and employees.
Global partnerships adopted the identical sample. Fidson labored with Japan’s Ohara Pharmaceutical Company on an oncology growth and with three Chinese consortiums on an HIV-focused manufacturing hub within the Lekki Free Trade Zone, every deal including to the monitor file regulators now depend on.
Under the Roche association, Fidson will obtain technical info and reference supplies wanted to pursue regulatory approval, with the goal of constructing the drug accessible in eligible markets at a decrease price.
Recognition has tracked the identical climb. In 2025, Ayebae grew to become the youngest individual to obtain the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, 9 years after turning into the primary non-pharmacist admitted into the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria’s Hall of Honorary Membership.
