Uganda produces ARVs, malaria drugs
Feb 21, 2009
QUALITY Chemical Industries in Luzira has started full scale commercial production of anti-retroviral and anti-malarial drugs.
By Anthony Bugembe
QUALITY Chemical Industries in Luzira has started full scale commercial production of anti-retroviral and anti-malarial drugs.
The first batches of the drugs were launched on Thursday by the Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya.
Originally, the company was providing ARVs and anti-malarial drugs courtesy of CIPLA, a leading Indian pharmaceutical firm. The two companies are in a joint venture.
“We have had to contend with a lot of challenges. But beginning this month we started full commercial production,†said Emmanuel Katongole, the Quality Chemicals chief executive officer.
He said the factory is manufacturing the latest AIDS drug — DUOVIR-N, which is a combination of three drugs in one tablet (Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine). “This product is Uganda’s first line treatment of AIDS and it revolutionalised Anti-retroviral therapy to ease administration and hence improve adherence to treatment by sufferers,†Katongole said.
He appealed to the Government to ensure that the factory has a ready market and to effect the promised ten-year tax holiday. “We hear of funding bodies wanting regional governments to enter into supply agreements that will bind us for years without taking into account that we also have our own manufacturing capacity.
“Quality Chemicals has the capacity to supply the entire Great Lakes region. The Government should also protect us by putting a 15% tariff on imported pharmaceuticals which can be locally manufactured including ARVs and Artemisinin-based combination therapies. This should be extended to other local manufacturers as well,†Katongole added.
Bukenya pledged full government support to the factory and said the time had come for Ugandans to use medicines manufactured in the country.
QUALITY Chemical Industries in Luzira has started full scale commercial production of anti-retroviral and anti-malarial drugs.
The first batches of the drugs were launched on Thursday by the Vice President, Gilbert Bukenya.
Originally, the company was providing ARVs and anti-malarial drugs courtesy of CIPLA, a leading Indian pharmaceutical firm. The two companies are in a joint venture.
“We have had to contend with a lot of challenges. But beginning this month we started full commercial production,†said Emmanuel Katongole, the Quality Chemicals chief executive officer.
He said the factory is manufacturing the latest AIDS drug — DUOVIR-N, which is a combination of three drugs in one tablet (Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine). “This product is Uganda’s first line treatment of AIDS and it revolutionalised Anti-retroviral therapy to ease administration and hence improve adherence to treatment by sufferers,†Katongole said.
He appealed to the Government to ensure that the factory has a ready market and to effect the promised ten-year tax holiday. “We hear of funding bodies wanting regional governments to enter into supply agreements that will bind us for years without taking into account that we also have our own manufacturing capacity.
“Quality Chemicals has the capacity to supply the entire Great Lakes region. The Government should also protect us by putting a 15% tariff on imported pharmaceuticals which can be locally manufactured including ARVs and Artemisinin-based combination therapies. This should be extended to other local manufacturers as well,†Katongole added.
Bukenya pledged full government support to the factory and said the time had come for Ugandans to use medicines manufactured in the country.