East African Business Week

Kampala, Uganda- Over dependence on imports of pharmaceutical products in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) will soon be curbed as Uganda exploits the huge potential in the region.  
 Low regional production and lower prices for products imported has made the COMESA region heavily dependent on imports of pharmaceuticals. However, with the acquisition of the World Health Organisation (WHO) pre-qualification, Uganda is now poised to tap into the huge market.
A COMESA states meeting in Kampala, Uganda last week recommended that Uganda, already a drug producing country, takes up the challenge and start exporting to its member's states.
"The COMESA team visited the drug factory and realised that it is actually underutilised," the COMESA Director of Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs, Dr Francis Mangeni, said during a visit to Quality Chemicals Industries Ltd.
Mangeni said member states observed that the factory was producing only 30% of its capacity. Quality Chemical Industries Ltd, the Uganda based anti-retroviral and anti-malarial drug manufacturer, is to start construction of a second factory adjacent to the existing this year. The extension project is estimated at $25m.
The  Chief Executive Officer,  Quality Chemical Industries, Mr. Emmanuel Katongole says the new factory is in advanced stages of architectural design with the ground breaking for construction  expected in June.
 The rapid expansion by the relatively new company follows pre-qualification by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has increased demand from the region hence the need to increase capacity. The new plant will increase capacity from the current 6 million tablets a day to 15 million tablets per day.
COMESA region is a market of over 430 million people which constitute an important opportunity for investors and producers of drugs and medicines within the region. In the year 2009 COMESA's total imports of pharmaceutical products were US$2.6 billion and the total COMESA exports were US$276 million which indicates that COMESA constitutes a huge market for pharmaceutical products.
However, lack of Government guarantees to purchase drugs manufactured locally tends to frustrate investment in the sector.
Member states noted that limited access to finance, low intra-COMESA trade in pharmaceutical products and lack of focus on Research and Development were some of the challenges faced by COMESA states.
Member states urged the COMESA Secretariat to consider establishing regional reference laboratories for drug testing to assist Member States who lack such facilities. This, they said, will enhance regional acceptance of drugs tested in these labs.
The Secretariat has also been tasked to identify drug producers in the region and disseminate the information to Member States to facilitate sourcing of the drugs in the region.
  The workshop on Public Health and Access to Life-saving medicine in COMESA was held from March 1-5, 2011 at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala, Uganda.
The objectives of the workshop were to promote access by the majority of the population to pharmaceutical products in the COMESA region through increased production and trade in pharmaceutical products and through bulk purchasing as well as utilizing flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement.