NatPharm boosts medicines availability

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

Senior Health Reporter

THE National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm) is expecting delivery of nearly 400 different lines of medicines and health consumables over the next three months as part of efforts to boost the availability of essential drugs across all public health facilities.

Currently, medicine availability is between 49 percent and 52 percent, but the organisation seeks to increase this to between 60 percent and 80 percent.

However, several challenges have made it difficult for NatPharm to meet these targets.

NatPharm, which is mandated by the Government to procure, store and distribute medicines and medical supplies to public health institutions, operates six warehouses in Harare, Bulawayo, Chinhoyi, Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare.

Serving about 1 700 health facilities nationwide, NatPharm ideally requires 7 496 product lines to fully meet demand.

In an interview yesterday, NatPharm managing director Mr Newman Madzikwa said the situation would soon improve significantly with an anticipated increase in supplies, marking a giant step towards meeting the needs of all health facilities.

“We have quite a number of lines that we are expecting. In the next three months, we will be receiving close to 400 different lines of health commodities to ensure that our facilities get products that they need at any given time. So we are looking at supplies being availed to health facilities to the extent that they will meet almost 60 to 80 percent of their needs.

“Currently we have around 49 to 52 percent of their needs being met. So we are looking at improving that in the next quarter and subsequent quarter,” he said.

Among the medicines already in stock, Mr Madzikwa revealed that NatPharm had secured antiretroviral (ARV) medicines to cover the country’s needs up to the end of the year. These are being distributed using a targeted delivery model to ensure timely supply to clinics and hospitals, while avoiding expiries or unnecessary warehousing costs.

“We have received some and we continue to receive ARVs that will take us right up to the end of the year, which is almost six months’ worth of stock. For central hospitals and provincial hospitals, we deliver on demand, while for clinics we have a programme that ensures that each and every facility is visited once a quarter with the deliveries that they require for products up to four or five months of supply,” Mr Madzikwa added.

The move is aimed at managing expiry dates of most medicines, which have a shelf life of about 18 months as well as ensuring prudent use of financial resources.

On 16 June, President Mnangagwa made an impromptu visit to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Sally Mugabe Hospital where he saw firsthand the dire conditions facing public health facilities.

Among other challenges, the two referral hospitals faced acute shortages of essential drugs and consumables while their infrastructure was dilapidated.

President Mnangagwa also toured NatPharm where he found a paradoxical situation in which stocks of drugs were piled up while public hospitals were understocked.

In addition to expanding its procurement and distribution efforts, NatPharm is also advancing Zimbabwe’s local pharmaceutical manufacturing strategy.

This includes technology transfer partnerships with countries such as Iran, India, Indonesia, and China to produce essential medicines locally.

“We have several memorandums of understanding that we have signed with countries such as Iran, Indonesia, China and others. So we have identified molecules that are of interest to us, because we believe that these are coming to augment molecules that are already manufactured locally,” Mr Madzikwa said.

“Already we’ve identified 49 molecules that we are prioritising, and we’ve gotten into MOUs with local manufacturers in order for us to make sure that all our needs are supplied by local manufacturers. At the same time, we are talking to international suppliers, where we are intending to increase not only the amount of products that are available to our population, but also the technology transfer of those products being manufactured locally”.

Local pharmaceutical companies only produce oral solid doses, but plans were underway to introduce the manufacture of injectable medicines, such as morphine and other medicines used in theatre.

Already, five products from Iran have been identified for local production, beginning with procurement and market testing before full-scale technology transfer is implemented.

Mr Madzikwa said the partnerships would ensure the country was more self-reliant and better prepared for future health emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic.

The initiatives form part of the National Pharmaceutical Strategy, which was launched to grow the contribution of local manufacturers and reduce reliance on imports.

“The identification of 49 products with local manufacturers and also getting into MOU is part and parcel of the implementation of the National Pharmaceutical Strategy. Remember, the initial assessment found that local manufacturers account for 10 percent of local products that are in our markets. So we are looking at gradually increasing that to above 30 percent in the next year and a half with the intention of increasing it to be a significant component of the market share”, said Mr Madzikwa.

This strategy signals a shift towards a more resilient health sector, with improved access to life-saving drugs and stronger pharmaceutical capacity.

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