Varichem stops producing ARVs

that its recently acquired from World Health Organisation pre-qualification to manufacture ARVs is now lying idle together with almost 70 percent of the other machinery on the plant.
Zimbabwe is one of the four countries in Africa to get WHO pre-qualification to manufacture ARVs.
The other three are Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.
In an interview after a tour by the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on HIV and Aids of the manufacturing plant recently, Varichem Pharmaceuticals technical director Mr Alois Muchabaiwa said the last ARV order from the National Aids Council was in November last year.
The company’s operational capacity for the other products is 65 percent, a situation Mr Muchabaiwa attributed to lack of support from the local market.
“We are currently not getting any orders from the public sector as most of its drugs are donor funded and donors do not buy drugs locally,” Mr Muchabaiwa said.
“We believe value added tax on drugs should be removed totally because it is an unnecessary cost on a businessperson.”
He said the senators should advocate the removal of duty and VAT on raw materials for the production of the drugs.
He said duty and VAT charged on raw materials added up to 40 percent of the final product cost.
Mr Muchabaiwa said their foreign competitors could bring finished drugs into the country duty free, hence their low prices.
During the tour, parliamentarians were told that close to 70 percent of the giant pharmaceutical company’s machines is currently lying idle because there are no orders.
Varichem Pharmaceuticals export and tender executive Mr Dennis Chiguya appealed to the committee to lobby for policies that ensured that the local market also supported local industry.
He said tenders of drugs that were manufactured locally should be awarded to local companies.
“We need to seriously consider talking to NAC and the State Procurement Board to ensure that as long as a product is locally available, that product should not go for tender. We can sit down and negotiate prices,” said Mr Chiguya.
The pharmaceutical company told the parliamentarians that it was able to meet the national ARVs requirement.
Commenting on Varichem’s challenges, committee chairperson Mr Dalumuzi Khumalo (MDC), said they had taken note of the organisation’s challenges and will take them up for deliberations in consultation with other stakeholders.
“We cannot respond to your concerns now as we need to engage other players in this sector,” Mr Khumalo said.