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CABINET on Tuesday approved a five-year Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy, which will assist the country in trimming imports through increased domestic production of essential medicines and expanding both local and international market.

Guided by the new strategy, the country aims at widening the market share of local pharmaceutical products from 12 percent to 35 percent by 2025 and increasing local production of essential medicines from US$31.5 million to US$150 million by 2025.

This is expected to drive local production of essential medicines from 30 percent to 60 percent by 2025 with exports of pharmaceutical products also set to improve from 10 percent to 25 percent by 2025.

The import substitution industrialisation focus is at the heart of the Government’s efforts to transform the economy towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

The new pharmaceutical manufacturing strategy is the first in the history of Zimbabwe, envisaged to facilitate growth of the sector and guarantee affordable medicines for the citizens.

The sector, alongside cooking and leather industries, is among the target sectors earmarked for transformation under the value chain mainstreaming approach being pushed by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

In a post Cabinet media briefing on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa said the new sector strategy would help tackle inherent bottlenecks that have hindered industry operations in the past.

“Cabinet considered and approved the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy in Zimbabwe: 2021-2025, which was presented by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development (Professor Amon Murwira) as chairman of the Combined Cabinet Committee on Science and Technology Development and Application, and Industrialisation and Export Development,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

“Cabinet acknowledged that the major challenge bedevilling the pharmaceutical sector was low production as a result of use of obsolete and antiquated equipment, cumbersome registration procedures and limited innovation.

“Implementation of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy will not only resolve these bottlenecks but will also result in increased production of essential medicines for both domestic and export markets.”

Cabinet was informed that the objectives of the new strategy will be achieved through a set of measures that include increasing production, enhancement of competitiveness, market expansion, product diversification, export development, improved ease of doing business and mobilisation of the required financial resources.

To aid production growth, the minister said Government institutions and hospitals will be required to procure pharmaceutical products from local manufacturers in line with the local content strategy.

“Competitiveness of the local pharmaceutical industry will be achieved through such measures as the use of raw materials that are exempted from import duties as well as Value Added Tax deferment,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

“NatPharm will increase its capacity to procure locally manufactured pharmaceutical products.

“Furthermore, the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) will be capacitated to ensure faster registration of pharmaceutical products and to develop a programme on plant refurbishments, and upgrading and improvements in Quality Management Systems.”

The minister said the interventions would ensure that local manufacturers comply with international pharmaceutical manufacturing quality standards and enhance competitiveness locally and internationally. Government, in collaboration with local industry, would also push for the elimination of non-tariff barriers in order to promote export development, she said.