EA countries to buy drugs jointly

Feb 18, 2010

Member states of the East African Community (EAC) plan to jointly procure drugs to avoid high prices and counterfeit drugs, the first deputy premier, Eriya Kategaya, has revealed.

By Josephine Maseruka

Member states of the East African Community (EAC) plan to jointly procure drugs to avoid high prices and counterfeit drugs, the first deputy premier, Eriya Kategaya, has revealed.

Kategaya said procurement of drugs in bulk would resolve challenges associated with procurement and supply chains of essential medicines.

“These are initiatives which can be strengthened and expanded to cover the central and southern African regions,” he said.

Kategaya was yesterday opening a five-day conference for the 14 member states of east, central and southern African health community (ECSA) at the Serena Hotel in Kampala.

Kategaya urged each member country to use its comparative advantage that can be borrowed by others. He gave an example of Uganda’s Luzira based Quality Chemical industry which manufactures anti-malarial and anti-retroviral medicines with a capacity to supply the region.

“I urge member states to market areas where they have strong competences so that we can support each other in ensuring the health and well-being of our citizens,” he said.

Dr. Richard Nduhura, the state health minister for general duties, said Uganda is in the process of launching the national health insurance scheme.

He explained that the scheme would supplement the Government’s efforts to reduce crowding at referral facilities and improve access to health care.

He, however, observed that convincing people to take on health insurance was a big challenge because most people do not understand how it works.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});