Government is increasingly focused on ensuring an adequate domestic supply of pharmaceuticals
8th Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN) Biennial Forum on Wednesday in Nairobi
By: MoH
Worth Noting:
- Dr Aman lauded the objectives of the forum which he said is focused on creating a resilient healthcare system that is prepared to prevent and control future pandemics and for early detection of potential outbreaks.
- Among the issues to be discussed by the forums includes COVID-19 and its effect on primary health care with a focus on pharmaceutical services. It shall also share best practices and strategies for the future in Non-Communicable Diseases, Communicable Diseases, Maternal and Child Health and strategies that boost pharmaceutical industry and local production of medicines in LMICs and how this affects health care.
The government is increasingly focused on ensuring an adequate domestic supply of pharmaceuticals.
Speaking during the 8th Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN) Biennial Forum on Wednesday in Nairobi, Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) for Health, Dr. Rashid Aman said local production is essential for improved access to affordable medical products.
“With imports comprising as much as 70 percent of drugs consumed in the country it’s time to promote local production. We only control about 22 percent and there is need to pool resources to increase supply,” he said.
Addressing the delegates from 130 institutions across Africa and beyond the CAS stated that commodities and equipment play a crucial role in health service provision and it’s an important factor in determining the accessibility of health services.
The countries represented included Kenya, TZ, Uganda, Burundi,cameroon, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria , Central African Republic, Chad, DRC, Netherlands, and Germany among others.
Dr Aman lauded the objectives of the forum which he said is focused on creating a resilient healthcare system that is prepared to prevent and control future pandemics and for early detection of potential outbreaks.
Among the issues to be discussed by the forums includes COVID-19 and its effect on primary health care with a focus on pharmaceutical services. It shall also share best practices and strategies for the future in Non-Communicable Diseases, Communicable Diseases, Maternal and Child Health and strategies that boost pharmaceutical industry and local production of medicines in LMICs and how this affects health care.
Dr. Aman said the Government has invested between 1.5 and 2 billion shillings on Biovax project whose focus is not only to manufacture vaccines for Covid-19 but also targets other vaccines. He confirmed that the institution which has been gazetted, has been set up and acquired staff and equipment ready to start operations by next year.
“COVID-19 is not the end of crises and pandemics, now we are faced with the threats of Monkey pox and Ebola. Our partnership and synergy with our stakeholders become even more important at this time,” Dr. Aman said.
He added “We saw how vaccines supply affected the mitigation of the disease especially at the initial stages of the pandemic. This ties up well with the need to have local pharmaceutical industry and production.”
He noted that during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic the Ministry of Health formulated and developed various guidelines to ensure that essential health services are not discontinued during an emergency or crisis.
He also highlighted the importance of health promotion and said the ministry has invested in capacity building especially at the primary and community levels in social behavior communication change, strengthened the Community based primary health care infrastructure by establishing primary health care networks, community health units and various innovations to increase health services accessibility and efficiency.
“Strategic partnership and coordination is also key, and I commend this forum’s contributing towards the objective by creating a platform to implement health services in a comprehensive and integrated manner especially during crises and emergencies,” he said.
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