East Africa pharmaceutical market to see fast growth: UNCTAD

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Friday forecast the current five billion U.S. dollar East African pharmaceutical market to grow by more than 12 percent per year for the next five years.

Christoph Spennemann, who is in charge of UNCTAD's program on intellectual property rights and development, said the growth will be buoyed by lifestyle changes in the region which have led to higher rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.

"The biggest challenge facing local producers is the lack of capital they need to invest in improving product quality," Spennemann told a Nairobi meeting on boosting pharmaceutical production in the East African Community (EAC).

According to Spennemann, such high growth offers significant opportunity, but so far the region's 65 manufacturers have only been able to satisfy about 30 percent of market demand, leaving the other 70 percent to be captured by imports.

Boosting local pharmaceutical production is hot on the political agenda for EAC governments, looking to reduce medical costs for families and to increase access to essential medicines, especially in rural areas.

Spennemann said local pharmaceutical industries need a supportive domestic policy environment, including on tax, research and development, and trade policies in addition to harmonization.

"Get one of these policies wrong and local producers are at a disadvantage," he said. Endit