Experts urge investments in local medicine production
The government seeks to increase domestic production of pharmaceutical products to reach 60 percent by 2027 in order to reduce importation. PHOTO | Shutterstock
The need for investments in pharmaceuticals emerged during a ministerial meeting held in Arusha in November 2023.
Delegates from the partner states called for support from the multilateral agencies to enable the region to produce its drugs. Dr Juma Mukhwana, the permanent secretary in Kenya’s ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry implored the development partners to support the region in this endeavour.
He cited the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as one of the agencies with the capacity to support the region. He called on the UN body to upgrade and promote investments in the region in the pharmaceutical sector.
Dr Mukhwana said the EAC partner states were keen to see the growth of investments in local production of drugs and appreciated assistance from the donors.
“We wish to express our sincere gratitude to UNCTAD for the technical and financial support provided to the region through this project,” he pointed out.
He, however, decried the tendency of the drug producers in the region to focus on a limited range of antibiotics while neglecting newer antibiotics and others that are needed as much. This, according to him, often leads to oversupply and overreliance on a narrow range of antibiotics, which, in turn, pose a high risk for antimicrobial resistance development.
The challenges in question are made worse by the fact that the region depends on imports for over 70 percent of its medicines.
“This necessitates the urgent need for the EAC partner states to implement the policy incentives to attract investments in the region,” he pointed out.
Other speakers at the meeting included Mr Bruno Casella, Senior Economist and Chief, Intellectual Property Unit, Division Investment and Enterprise with UNCTAD. He said the time has come for the EAC member countries to address current bottlenecks in the local production of antibiotics in the region and allow information exchange to support local production of antibiotics at the regional level.
The implementation of the EAC Regional Policy Framework on the Production and Supply of Antibiotics and Regional cooperation mechanism for information exchange on antibiotics will require a multisectoral approach at the interface of health, trade, industry, and investment.
The existing implementation structures for the EAC pharmaceutical policies and strategies at the regional and national levels will be utilised.
The 44th EAC Ordinary Council of Ministers adopted the regional policy framework for the promotion of antibiotic production and supply in the EAC and a regional cooperation mechanism for information exchange for the production and supply of antibiotics. The ministerial meeting was followed by a meeting of the EAC-UNCTAD project on “investment incentives for local production of essential antibiotics in East Africa,” held in Nairobi early last month.
Mr Jean Baptiste Havugimana, the EAC director of Productive Sectors said the joint project on antibiotics between the EAC and UNCTAD introduces incentives that address the current bottlenecks in the local production of antibiotics in the region.
On the other hand, the regional cooperation mechanism for information exchange on production and supply of antibiotics will enable the development and update on a regular basis of a short list of essential antibiotics that are experiencing shortages, recurrent interruptions of supply, excessive pricing, and other supply challenges.
The EAC has for years been struggling to address too much dependency on imports of its essential pharmaceuticals through local production.
In 2021, it sought the support of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) to accelerate the manufacturing of its own pharmaceuticals, which would reduce imports.
The bloc was to be assisted in developing a strong pharmaceutical industry that could supply drugs and vaccines to the local market.
The regional organisation had also developed the EAC Regional Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan of Action, intended to address the drug shortage.
The two-phase plan (2012–2016 and 2017–2027) was prepared to guide the EAC towards building an efficient and effective pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
It would, among others, decrease dependency on pharmaceutical imports from outside EAC from more than 70 percent to less than 50 percent.
The ambitious plan would also support the expansion of the product portfolio of EAC firms to cater to more than 90 percent of disease conditions.
It is estimated that, if implemented, the plan would enable up to 50 percent of purchases by EAC national medicine procurement agencies to be sourced from local manufacturers.
Currently, there are only five companies in the EAC that produce advanced pharmaceutical formulations, such as delayed-release formulations, small-volume injectables, and double-layered tablets, among others.
