Government should be intentional in providing the local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry with financial support for anti-malaria drug production towards a more sustainable malaria elimination programme, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tobinco Group of Companies, Dr Samuel Amo Tobbin, has stated.
He said the support could be in the form of tax reliefs, and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions on their manufacturing inputs, such as the raw materials, machinery and production plants.
In an exclusive interview to share his perspectives on the country’s efforts at eliminating malaria, Dr Tobbin said such deliberate support would significantly reduce the cost of locally produced malaria medications, making them affordable and accessible to Ghanaians.
In addition, he appealed to the government to restrict the importation of anti-malaria products since the local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry had the capacity to produce enough for the Ghanaian market.
Dr Tobbin said such restrictions would go a long way to protect local industry and promote made-in-Ghana products.
He said even though restrictions had been put on some anti-malaria importations, a lot more medicines still needed to be restricted to promote local manufacture.
“There are about 50 pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ghana, and we have enough capacity to produce antimalarials.
So, if the government, through the Food and Drugs Authority, will restrict the imports of these same products, then the local companies can produce more, and it will stabilise our currency as well,” he explained.
Dr Tobbin was speaking last Tuesday ahead of World Malaria Day, which will be observed worldwide tomorrow, on the theme: “Driven to End Malaria: Now We Can. Now We Must”.
One of Dr Tobbin’s subsidiary companies, Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, an ISO-certified manufacturing facility for the production of pharmaceutical products, produces Lufart, a multiple award-winning product considered one of the most effective and affordable malaria drugs in the Ghanaian market and 14 other African countries’ markets.
Other companies under the Tobinco Group of Companies include Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Training Institute, Entrance University of Health Sciences and Entrance University Hospital.
Reliefs
On financial support from the government, Dr Tobbin, who is also the President of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Ghana (PMAG), explained that even though some raw materials used in manufacturing anti-malaria drugs were enjoying reliefs from the government, more of them needed to be captured to help with the manufacture of more medications for countries in the West African sub-region, a move that could strategically position Ghana to become the engine of growth so far as the pharmaceutical industry was concerned.
“Countries in Africa crave for and believe a lot in Ghanaian pharmaceutical products because of the quality. Malaria is not a Ghana-only problem. It’s African, it’s a global problem even though Africa has the highest burden.
“So, if Ghana can do it right with manufacturing by making these same medications available to our brothers and sisters in the sub-region, then in terms of economy, it would be good for the country,” Dr Tobbin added.
In terms of disease burden, he said manufacturing anti-malaria drugs for the African market would be a shared support from Ghana to its neighbours.
Eliminating malaria
Dr Tobbin enumerated some of the challenges associated with the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Ghana, including the misconception that imported drugs were far better than those made in Ghana, getting good facilities at good interest rates to be able to run manufacturing plants; unstable exchange rates as regards imported raw materials, and the influx of cheap imports of drugs that the local ones had to compete with, purely on prices.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
