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MSD unveils initiatives to cut medicine imports
Medical Stores Department (MSD) director Mavere Tukai speaks during a meeting with editors on the entity’s achievements and challenges in Dar es Salaam on September 27, 2023. PHOTO | Michael Matemanga
What you need to know:
- Data from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) shows that the country spent $307 million importing pharmaceutical products during the year ending July 2023.
Dar es Salaam. The Medical Stores Department (MSD) is undertaking various initiatives in its effort to reduce the amount of hard-earned forex that Tanzania spends on imports of medicines and medical equipment.
This comes as data from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) shows that the country spent $307 million importing pharmaceutical products during the year ending July 2023.
A September 2020 paper titled “Towards a National Strategy for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Tanzania’ put the country’s medicines and medical equipment market at around $457 million and that it was growing at an annual rate of nine percent, while local factories account for only about 20 percent.
Other quarters say the market size could actually be over $1 billion, considering the massive volumes of pharmaceutical products imported by private hospitals and other companies.
As such, key on MSD’s agenda, which also aligns well with Tanzania’s industrialization goals, is the establishment of factories that will manufacture some medicines and medical products locally to cut on the import bill, create jobs for Tanzanians, and ultimately make the country secure in key medicines and medical products.
In line with the initiatives, the MSD Director General, Mr Mavere Tukai, told editors yesterday that they were currently finalising the construction of a glove factory at Idofi in Njombe.
“We are also involving the private sector in identifying investment areas for strategic medicines and medical equipment like tablets, capsules, syrups, and other products that are manufactured from cotton,” Mr Tukai told editors during a briefing that was coordinated by the Office of the Treasury Registrar.
He said they were currently finalising the registration and operation procedures for the mask factory, which is located at Keko and, upon completion, will produce enough masks to meet Tanzania’s demand.
According to him, the establishment of a subsidiary company, “MSD Medipharma Manufacturing Company Limited,” will help to manage the production of health products.
He said the MSD has also registered a number of achievements in other operational areas, including distribution and procurement, among others. In a move to defeat the challenge of obstructed labour, MSD has been implementing MSD has been implementing, purchasing and distributing equipment under the Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) services.
Under the project, a total of 284 health facilities received equipment to help in the interventions for pregnant women and newborns experiencing fatal complications, including severe bleeding, infection, prolonged or obstructed labour, eclampsia, and asphyxia in the newborn.
While the plan was to distribute a total of 345 pieces of equipment, the MSD has until June distributed 299 pieces, which is equivalent to 87 percent of the target.
A total of Sh79.4 billion was spent on the project, against a budget of Sh99.7 billion. He said that as of June 2023, the availability of medicines had reached 81 percent, up from 57 percent in June last year.
This was due to a rise in the amount that the MSD received for its tasks. It received Sh190.3 billion during the 2022/23 financial year, compared to Sh134.9 billion in the fiscal year 2021/22.
