Government urged to prioritise locally made medicines

Source: Government urged to prioritise locally made medicines – herald

Martin Kadzere Martin.Kadzere@zimpapers.co.zw

Zimbabwe’s local pharmaceutical industry is urging the Government to realign its public buying policies to prioritise local products, after local drug purchases by the State collapsed to one percent over the last four years, despite domestic manufacturers having the capacity to produce nearly half of the country’s essential medicines.

Speaking at a recent industrial conference, Ms Kudzai Hove from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association warned that depressed domestic demand posed an existential challenge to local producers.

She said that guaranteed public sector consumption was essential to build scale, lower production costs and drive investment into research and innovation.

Public procurement of pharmaceuticals is managed through National Pharmaceutical, a State-owned enterprise, and the country imported drugs worth about US$330 million last year.

“We are practically importing medicines that we manufacture right here at home,” Ms Hove said.

This comes at a time when Zimbabwe’s pharmaceutical sector is otherwise experiencing notable growth.

Following global supply chain disruptions exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, local manufacturers undertook significant capital investments, bringing a number of new production lines on stream to strengthen national health security.

However, industry leaders caution that this post-pandemic industrial expansion risks being undermined if public healthcare facilities continue to source their supplies abroad instead of drawing from upgraded domestic infrastructure.

According to data presented by the association, local manufacturers currently have the technical capacity to produce 47 percent of the items listed on Zimbabwe’s essential medicines list.

However, the sector’s share of public procurement has experienced a significant decline over the past decade. In 2014, domestic manufacturers supplied 10 percent of public pharmaceutical procurement — a figure that has now plummeted to under one percent over the last four years.

Ms Hove noted that historically, public pharmaceutical procurement in Zimbabwe and across Africa was dominated by donor funding, which fostered a structural bias towards foreign imported drugs.

However, with global donor funding winding down, she argues that the country must move away from relying on external aid to intentionally supporting local enterprise.

The low domestic demand has forced prominent local players to look beyond national borders to survive.

For instance, Varichem Pharmaceuticals, one of the country’s leading drug manufacturers, now exports over 50 percent of its production — a trend cited as a direct consequence of inadequate public procurement at home.

Ms Hove emphasised that the lack of domestic procurement was not a result of poor product quality or inadequate industrial capability.

In 2005, a World Bank assessment identified Zimbabwe as one of only four countries in Africa possessing meaningful pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity capable of supplying both regional and continental markets.

Furthermore, local regulatory standards remain world-class.

The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) recently attained World Health Organisation (WHO) Maturity Level 4 status — the highest regulatory level recognised internationally, placing Zimbabwe among an elite group of global drug regulators.