What about National Drug Supply Security? - Geoff Banda

14 July 2014

The field evidence currently being gathered raises an interesting area for discussion, and one that does not usually dominate the discourse on local pharmaceutical production and its effect on local health systems. If improvements are to be long term, then security of supply must be addressed. Although technocrats in Kenya argue that India or China may be able to supply medicines cheaply to African countries, we need to ask how India developed the technological competencies to become the pharmacy of the world, and how long it took them. India's current capabilities are the product of almost five decades of purposive technological capability and capacity building, backed by institutional, policy and practice incentives.

The key questions that have arisen in discussions in Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa are:

• What are the time frames policymakers and any commentators consider when they argue that Africa can, and should, depend on India as the pharmacy of the world?
• What will happen if - or when - the Indian pharmaceutical firms decide it is no longer economically attractive to produce essential medicines for Africa?
• What will happen to national drug security in the case of an impending epidemic?
• Will India produce for Africa first, i.e. before it has satisfied both its local needs and those of economies with deeper pockets?

Based on the questions above, the technocrats argue that local pharmaceutical production should be viewed from a national health and security perspective. Kenya, for example, in its National Pharmaceutical policy, has started to purposively promote local production, research and innovations of essential health products and technologies. The strategy document highlights the benefits of local manufacture to the local health system as follows: 'Another important benefit of LPP [local pharmaceutical production] and one which is often overlooked is national drug security. Import dependence and donor dependence both represent risks in terms of national drug security.' One Kenyan respondent added, 'Africa needs a disaster to wake up to the need of having local pharmaceutical production capabilities.'

The discourses I have picked up in fieldwork suggest that rather than dwelling on the current scenario, it would be better to focus on the long-term sustainability of local drug supply to the local health system. The critical question - to produce or not to produce - is best answered by taking a long-term perspective.

IKD and Development Policy and Practice member Geoff Banda is a post-doctoral research fellow in finance, innovation and development. His current research is focusing on financing the African pharmaceutical sector's innovation and industrial development.