Minister of Trade and Industry Sosten Gwengwe has pledged the government’s support towards local drug manufacturers in a quest to bolster the pharmaceutical industry.
He said increasing the sector’s capacity would help reserve foreign exchange.
Gwengwe made the remarks when he toured Pharmanova Limited production space.
He emphasised the essence of increasing local production towards achieving Malawi 2063 aspiration of self-reliance.
Gwengwe underscored the government’s commitment to revitalising the Buy Malawi Strategy, with specific focus on pharmaceutical sector development.
“We should now stop thinking that Malawi needs to import basic medicines like Aspirin, Paracetamol or Ibuprofen. We really need to build our pharmaceutical industry,” Gwengwe said.
He added that the government’s primary effort is to provide a ready market for local manufacturers stressing that this is a catalyst for them to find ways of scaling up.
Pharmanova Quality Assurance Manager Tawanda Musasa welcomed the government’s commitment but highlighted ongoing challenges such as forex shortages and power outages among others.
However, he was quick to reveal that the company is currently operating at only 30 percent of its potential output for government supply.
“We have a very big capacity to sell to the government. For tablets from the non-betalactam factory, we can manufacture about 4.4 billion tablets a year, and from our betalactam facility, about 500 million-plus tablets a year,” Musasa said.
