Low skilled labour hampering growth of Tanzania’s pharmaceutical industry

Nairobi. Skilled labour availability in the Tanzania pharmaceutical industry is incredibly low, slowing the country's pace to turn around the key sector for successful health delivery.
This has led to the few existing pharmaceutical plants hiring expatriates from outside, including those from the neighbouring countries to man the production lines.

With scarcity of qualified manpower, maintenance of some equipment is done outside the country, industry players say.
"Skilled labour availability is very low," affirmed Mr Hitesh Upreti, the managing director of the Dar es Salaam-based Zenufa Pharmaceutical Company Limited last week.
He told a 17 person media caravan visiting pharmaceutical plants across the East African Community (EAC) states that challenges facing the sector were enormous, ranging from high production costs to counterfeit imports.
He said 80 per cent of the raw materials needed for the manufacture of drugs have to be imported, adding to the production costs given the heavy demurrages and detention charges at the ports. 

"Port warphage and clearance charges are much higher when compared to other EAC countries", he said, noting that the situation was no better with the inland container depots (ICDs). 

The situation has been compounded by sugar import duty payment of 10 per cent additional on Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) value which is refundable.

However, he said, the company like so many other firms were yet to receive a single refund. 

Zenufa plant located at Kipawa is one of the few existing pharmaceutical plants in the country and produces different types of human medicines in different dosage forms. They include anti-malarials.

In Nairobi, owners of a drugs making company Universal Corporation Limited, complained on what he described as "regulatory barriers" for the importation of medicines made there by some EAC states.

Safiq M. Iqbal, the firm's operations manager said although pre-qualification of their products by the importing countries was mandatory, the process should be shortened when the same is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

He challenged the EAC leaders to ensure the region reduced pharmaceutical imports by at least 50 per cent by 2027 as articulated in the regional pharmaceutical manufacturing plan 2017-2027.

At Cosmos, one of the largest producer of pharmaceuticals in Kenya, the chief executive officer Mr. Rolando Satzke said EA imports nearly all active ingredients for the manufacture of drugs.

The region imports more than 70 per cent of its mostly consumed medicines due to low production capacity at home, leading to a spending of about $ 5.3billion annually for drugs importation.

It is projected to grow at the rate of 12.5 per cent in the next five years, pointing to immense business and investment opportunities.

The vaccines are among a category of medicines that the region wholly depends on imports as currently there is no local production capacity.