adminTinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
ZIMBABWE is losing over $200 million annually in potential revenue through importation of anti-retroviral drugs which can be manufactured locally, a UNAIDS official has said.
UNAIDS country director for Zimbabwe Mr Michael Bartos on Thursday told Sunday News that the country needs to start looking at HIV and Aids as a potential lever for economic growth than an expense.
Mr Bartos said by investing in the manufacturing of anti-retroviral drugs locally, Zimbabwe could also penetrate into the regional market and realise much more in terms of revenue.
Zimbabwe imports about 80 percent of its anti-retroviral drugs from India, a situation Mr Bartos said was benefiting foreign companies.
“One of the interesting questions is can Aids itself be used as a lever for economic growth. The more successful the Aids response is, we’ll firstly take off the cost of sickness and that’s good for the economy. As you know healthy people make a healthy economy.
“But then you also need to look at a situation where almost $200 million a year is being spent on anti-retroviral drugs in the country, none of which are being produced in Zimbabwe at the moment.
“So the whole question of moving to looking at, at the very least, packaging but maybe local production as well of anti-retroviral drugs and other medications is an area where we could actually see Aids, rather than being a cost on the economy, we could actually see ways it could contribute to the economy,” he said.
Zimbabwe also lost out on an opportunity to make billions of dollars through the manufacture of antiretrovirals and other drugs for both the local and Sadc markets after turning down a World Health Organisation request to manufacture the drugs for the two markets.
The country was given the green light to manufacture antiretrovirals and other drugs by the WHO under the Doha Declaration of 2001, but failed to take up the opportunity citing capital constraints.
According to the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Zimbabwe, the Sadc market for pharmaceuticals is valued at about $4 billion with the region considered to be having the highest uptake of ARVs in the world.
In 2002, the Ministry of Justice issued a notice declaring a period of emergency on HIV and Aids for the purpose of enabling the State or a person authorised in writing by the minister to make or use any patented drug, including any antiretroviral drugs.
The notice enabled the issuing of a compulsory licence in 2003 which permitted the country to manufacture 75 percent of ARVs for domestic use and 25 percent for export.
A local company, Varichem Pharmaceuticals, in 2010, became the third company in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve WHO pre-qualification for medicine products.
The company, however, failed to venture into manufacturing the antiretrovirals at competitive prices.
Mr Bartos also encouraged the country to start working on coming up with locally sustainable funding models of HIV programming by mobilising local resources that will see the country becoming less reliant on donor funding.
About 85 percent of the country’s HIV response programmes are donor funded, with the country only contributing 15 percent from the Aids levy and other domestic sources.
“15 percent domestic financing and 85 percent donor funding is a higher proportion compared to other countries but on the other hand it is significantly lower compared to other countries as well.
“I think Zimbabwe, in the medium term, needs to start looking at ways of improving domestic funding of its HIV response programmes. There are a lot of avenues that can be pursued. Already there is the Aids levy, but you could also consider public private partnerships as a way of harnessing local resources from the private sector,” he said.
Mr Bartos added that Government should also adhere to the Abuja Declaration which states that 15 percent of overall Government expenditure should be on health.
“It was very encouraging that during the opening ceremony Vice-President Mnangagwa made a commitment not only to the Aids levy but also a commitment to help from the national budget and meet the Abuja Declaration.
“Honouring the commitments made during the Abuja meeting will go some way in improving funding of the health sector.
“The ways that the public private sector partnerships could be used to harness local resources is another very interesting area, but we should be careful not to let the private sector make money out of Aids more than it would actually help fight the disease,” he said.
According to UNAIDS, about 14 million of the estimated 35 million people living with HIV around the world are on antiretroviral treatment.
In Zimbabwe about 1,4 million people are living with HIV and of that figure over 900 000 are receiving treatment, with the remainder still on the waiting list.
At least 156 718 children are living with HIV of which 46 319 are receiving treatment.
Online Reporter