Nigeria's pharmaceutical market remains heavily reliant on imports, with roughly 70 per cent of medicines sourced from abroad to meet domestic demand. Local manufacturers, including Fidson Healthcare, May & Baker, Mecure Industries and Neimeth, continue to produce drugs despite persistent challenges, and some even export. Yet even local manufacturing leans on imports for more than 90 per cent of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients.
How Nigeria's medicine supply gap persists
Population growth, urbanisation and greater healthcare awareness are stoking demand for medicines in Nigeria, particularly over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, which are expected to claim 69.4 per cent of total market share this year. Estimates of the size of the Nigerian pharmaceutical market vary from $2 billion to $3.3 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5 per cent projected from 2025 to 2029.
The exit of British multinational GlaxoSmithKline from Nigeria in 2023 left four active pharmaceutical companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange: Fidson Healthcare, May & Baker, Mecure Industries and Neimeth. That is just a fraction of the more than 120 functional drugmakers operating in the country. Among these, Fidson has carved out a dominant position, aided by a contract manufacturing relationship with Haleon, the British consumer health giant behind brands such as Sensodyne, Panadol, Advil and Centrum.
Fidson's grip on the quoted pharma market
Fidson holds the biggest slice of the publicly quoted market, accounting for well above half of market share in the quarter to March 2026, when revenue soared to N42.6 billion from N35 billion year on year. Mecure Industries followed with N20.2 billion, May & Baker recorded N8.4 billion and Neimeth brought in N1.8 billion. Exports by Fidson reached N1.8 billion, constituting just 4.3 per cent of revenue but representing vast progress over the N146.5 million earned in the same period the previous year.
Fidson's topline performance has been fuelled by a booming domestic prescription drug market, which Statista forecast to hit $2.9 billion in sales in 2025 and advance at an annual growth rate of 3.6 per cent through 2029. Ethical drugs alone contributed 56.3 per cent of turnover. For the financial year 2025, annual revenue climbed to an all-time peak of N119.1 billion from N84.1 billion, a figure 53.3 per cent higher than Mecure, its closest rival. Investment management firm Cardinal Stone has estimated that Fidson's revenue recorded a CAGR of around 28.5 per cent from FY2021 to FY2024.
Policy shifts and cross-border deals
Beyond favourable market dynamics, sales growth has benefited from forward-looking sectoral reforms by a government that aims to ramp up the local share of national drug production to 70 per cent by 2030. Nigeria's pharma watchdog, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), issued a provisional approval in April for the R21 Malaria Vaccine to be marketed in Nigeria. That cleared the hurdle for a deal between Fidson and Serum Institute of India Pvt Limited, the vaccine's maker, targeting prevention of clinical malaria in children aged 5 to 36 months and reduction of malaria-related mortality in tropical Africa.
In September 2024, Fidson reached a joint venture pact with Chinese companies Jiangsu Aidea Pharma, Nanjing PharmaBlock, and the Beijing-based China-Africa Development Fund to set up a manufacturing facility for HIV drugs in the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, aiming at West African pharmaceutical markets. The company extended its international partnerships further in September 2025 through an agreement with Ohara Pharmaceutical Co. Limited, a Tokyo-based firm that would support Fidson's capital raise and offer advisory services "based on insights from the Japanese pharmaceutical industry that will expand the capabilities of Fidson to produce more specialised medicines for the management of diverse disease conditions."
Profitability scores across the board
Fidson's post-tax profit rose by 39.4 per cent to N4.6 billion in Q1 2026, helped by stronger sales and cost management. Mecure and May & Baker jointly came second, each reporting N1.3 billion, while Neimeth posted N113.4 million. For the full year 2025, after-tax profit grew to N9.9 billion from N4.4 billion, with Mecure at N6.5 billion, May & Baker at N4.4 billion and Neimeth at N976.4 million.
As Cardinal Stone noted in a January research note on the 2025 report: "Notably, during the period, the company commenced the export of its products, earning an additional N523.1 million in revenue." The Financial Times, in its African Fastest Growing Companies' list for 2024, ranked Fidson 65th with a CAGR of 42.1 per cent, and 67th the following year with a CAGR of 42.6 per cent.
Fidson's EBIT margin, which measures core operating profit relative to revenue, stood at 19.4 per cent in Q1 2026, slightly up from 18.9 per cent a year earlier. Neimeth led this indicator at 32.4 per cent, followed by Mecure at 22.5 per cent and May & Baker at 21.3 per cent. For FY2025, Fidson reported an EBIT margin of 18.4 per cent, significantly higher than 5.2 per cent in 2024.
On net profit margin, Fidson's 10.7 per cent in Q1 2026 (up from 9.3 per cent) trailed only May & Baker's 15.2 per cent among its peers. Mecure posted 6.7 per cent, while Neimeth recorded 6.5 per cent. For FY2025, the company achieved a net profit margin of 8.3 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent a year earlier.
Asset growth and recapitalisation
Fidson is regarded as Nigeria's biggest drugmaker by asset base, which topped N93.7 billion in Q1 2026, an increase of 16.7 per cent year on year, driven largely by a more than twofold surge in trade and other receivables and by increased construction work in progress. Total assets stood at N80.3 billion as of FY2025 and N73.5 billion at FY2024.
Last December, Fidson launched a N21 billion rights issue, which was oversubscribed by 117 per cent, to beef up production capacity, accelerate pan-African expansion and deleverage its balance sheet. Mecure's total assets rose 36.4 per cent to N81.3 billion, May & Baker's climbed 1.5 per cent to N26.8 billion, and Neimeth's jumped 13.7 per cent to N14.1 billion.
Fidson's return on average equity (ROAE) dropped to 7 per cent from 12.8 per cent, as its shareholder fund expanded faster than net profit during the period, diluting the indicator. For FY2025, ROAE stood at 37.6 per cent, up from 28.9 per cent the year before. May & Baker recorded an ROAE of 8.9 per cent, down from 10.9 per cent in Q1 2025, while Mecure reported 6.5 per cent, up from 4.5 per cent, and Neimeth recorded 4.2 per cent, compared with 6.8 per cent a year earlier.
On return on average assets (ROAA), Fidson topped peers at 5.2 per cent in Q1 2026, relative to 4.2 per cent a year ago, and recorded 12.9 per cent for FY2025 and 8.5 per cent for FY2024. May & Baker followed at 4.9 per cent, up from 4.5 per cent, while Mecure fell to 1.6 per cent from 4.1 per cent, and Neimeth dropped to 0.8 per cent from 0.9 per cent. These metrics underscore the financial strength of Nigeria's leading drugmaker amid an import-dependent market.
