Africa
industry “witnessed numerous re-brand-
ings, mergers and acquisitions to enhance
corporate sales and consumer loyalty.”
BMI Research also said the East
Africa country’s pharmaceutical indus-
try is seen as an attractive destination
by drug manufacturers because of its
“favorable growth outlook, driven by its
evolving disease burden and expanding
healthcare coverage.”
Demand for pharmaceutical products
is expected to rise substantially in com-
ing years mainly because of “mounting
overall population growth, expanding
health cover by insurance firms, im-
proving general public healthcare pro-
visions, media awareness, partnerships
with global firms, and projections of a
strong gross domestic product perfor-
mance of over 6 percent,” according to
Euromonitor International.
Leading international pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxo Smithkline,
Merck & Co, Norvatis and Pfizer have
a presence in the Kenyan market, which
is the largest in East and Central Africa.
Local firms such as Beta Healthcare are
also scaling up their operations to take
advantage of the increasing demand for
pharmaceutical products with previous
estimates putting the pharmaceutical
and consumer health market at $160
million/year.
“Though GlaxoSmithKline East
Africa Ltd maintained a lead in consumer health in Kenya on grounds of its
strong brands such as Panadol, other local firms, such as Cosmos Ltd and Dawa
Ltd, intensified their marketing and promotional activities as well as maximizing
positioning on low prices and intensive
infrastructural investments, in order to
augment their annual sales during 2016,”
said Euromonitor.
The market researcher cited the recent
opening up of a manufacturing plant by
Dawa Ltd in Thika town, 50 kilometers
from the capital Nairobi to increase its
production. The Nairobi-based company operates in 10 African countries and
manufactures more than 230 pharmaceutical products.
Other drug manufacturers such as
Astra-Zeneca, Merck KGaA & Astellas
are said to have long-term health plans
targeting ailments such as hyperten-
sion, clinical diabetes and obstetric fis-
tula in Kenya.
The emergence of Kenya as a top investment destination for international
and drug makers in East Africa is also
linked to what business lobby agency
Business Sweden sais is “an increasing
trend in communicable and non-commu-
nicable diseases coupled with insufficient
provision of vital health products such as
vaccines and medicines.”
In addition, the government has
continued to fine-tune its regulatory
framework to make it more suitable for
pharmaceutical product manufacturers.
In 2016, the Finance ministry announced import tax exemptions for
heating, ventilation and air conditioners
for the pharmaceutical industry to “
encourage compliance with good manufacturing practices as dictated by the World
Health Organization.
The growth of the pharmaceutical
industry in Kenya is likely to get a ma-
jor boost from the implementation of
the East Africa Community’s Regional
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan of
Action for the EAC, which spells out
how the country in partnership with
Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi
can develop an efficient and effective
pharmaceutical manufacturing industry
that will supply the national, regional and
international markets with medicines.
“Access to affordable, high-quality and
efficacious health care products, particularly those used in the treatment of priority communicable and non-communicable
diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria,
Tuberculosis, Diabetes, Cardiovascular
Diseases, Chronic Respiratory Diseases
and Cancers and various Neglected
Tropical Diseases is of high national priority in each of the EAC Partner States,”
said Richard Sezibera, former secretary
general of EAC, a regional six-member
intergovernmental organization.
The plan of action, which is estimated
to cost $45 million raised from the six
EAC member States, development partners and the pharmaceutical industry,
hopes to promote competitive and efficient pharmaceutical production within
East Africa and also facilitate increased
investment in pharmaceutical production
within the region according to Sezibera.
Many analysts believe Kenya’s pharmaceutical segment is on a rebound and
the growth is expected to support the
industry’s coatings use not only in terms
of the product itself but also the equipment used in the coating of pharmaceutical products. CW
“The anticipated expansion of the Kenya
pharmaceutical industry, with more than 35
licensed drug manufacturers, is expected
to fuel the use of coating solutions as both
the international and local industries in the
country expand their operations. Their
expansion is also likely to result in increased
investment in hardware and software
especially for automated coating systems.”
