State to buy Kenyan health products, says
Nakhumicha
By
George.Kebaso, February 14, 2024
Kenya will only buy health products it does not manufactured locally, as part of the initiative to achieve 50 per cent of locally produced pharmaceutical commodities by 2025, Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has disclosed.
The CS revealed this during the opening of the 14th Kenya Medical Research Institute’s Scientific (KASH) Conference, disclosing that the government is banking on research gains as a catalyst for enhancing manufacturing of local pharmaceutical products.
She said currently the government is improving capacity to achieve the goal even as vaccine manufacturers and other health products such as the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) are gearing for exit from Kenya in the near future.
“The country has capacity to manufacture its own products, and we have seen it with the research outcomes at KEMRI.
I have instructed the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority – KEMSA – to buy locally manufactured health products, and this will go a long way in saving the country billions of shillings that drain into imports of healthcare products every year,” the CS told journalists after officially opening the four-day science meeting.