Medical imports from Asia choking local industry

Pharmaceutical companies in East Africa are facing stiff competition from imported medicines mainly from China, India and Bangladesh.

Manufacturers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the only plant in Burundi have lamented that lack of locally available raw materials has pushed the industry to the edge, allowing foreign firms to dominate.

None of the EAC nations has the active pharmaceutical ingredient, a key component in making drugs, leaving firms to rely on importation from India and China.

API constitutes 50 to 80 per cent of any given medicine and has a substantial cost factor in production.

The manufacturers challenged governments to follow the footsteps of Ghana, Bangladesh, India and China where deliberate efforts including policies and laws to boost local drug manufacturing were put to work.

According to George Muriithi of medicines maker Universal Corporation based in Kikuyu Town, local companies are struggling with many government levies hence affecting production capacity and ability to compete effectively with imports.

He said the production cost in Kenya is 100 per cent higher compared to a country like India.

He explained that a medicine which India can sell locally at Sh250 is sold at Sh500 by local manufacturers mainly due to high production costs.

According to Rolando Satzike, CEO of Cosmos, one of the leading drug manufacturing companies based in Nairobi, the high cost of importing the active pharmaceutical ingredient remains a key challenge.

He said though the importation of API is tax free, it is still a key factor in pushing up the cost of medicines.

He said cost of medicine in Kenya, including imported ones, is four times higher than the international market.

According to Hitesh Upreti, the managing director of Zenufa which is a pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in Dar Es Salaam, governments need to do more to protect local companies and have them compete effectively with imports.

Khushboo Vadodaria, the Director of Operations at Rene Industries in Kampala questioned why East African countries import medicines like paracetamol.
Source: https://www.the-star.co.ke

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