Investors cry foul as govt imports ARVs

The corporate secretary of the National Medical Stores, Mr Apollo Newton Mwesigye (R), appears before the Heath Committee of Parliament to answer queries about the HIV/Aids drugs. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE

What you need to know:

More share. Investors want government to give them the whole public sector business so that they spread more volume and reduce the price of drugs by up to 20 per cent

Kampala.

Investors in a pharmaceutical company producing life-saving drugs yesterday accused government of importing ARVs yet they can produce them cheaply to enable the people living with HIV/Aids access them readily.

In their petition to the Parliamentary Health Committee, Mr Fredrick Mutebi-Kitaka, the executive director finance, told MPs that although government is committed in a deal with CiplaQCIL to give the company monopoly for all its public sector requirements, they only buy 20 per cent of the supplies.

“We only receive 20 per cent of public sector business with the remaining 80 per cent donor-funded, for instance, President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and Global Fund being 100 per cent outsourced from elsewhere,” Mr Mutebi-Kitaka said.

“This is in direct contravention of our agreement. If the government of Uganda were to live by its commitment to accord us that whole public sector business, we would be able to spread more volume over the existing capacity that is currently idle and this would bring down the price by up to 20 per cent,” he added.

The company’s information officer, Ms Amber Kyambadde, said: “We are operating at 60 per cent capacity and yet if we increased capacity by government buying more drugs, prices of our ARVs could go down by 20 per cent”.

Ms Kyambadde later told Daily Monitor that HIV/Aids drugs bought with donor funds are 100 per cent imported, none are bought locally.

“It doesn’t make sense for Uganda to have a local producer of ARVs who can meet the local demand, and donors insist on buying the ARVs from elsewhere,” Ms Kyambadde said.

When contacted, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Asuman Lukwago, said the company was supposed to receive about $40m (about Shs120b)but because of the exchange rate fluctuations, they received only Shs100b.

He said they were also charged $7m (aboutShs21b) in handling fees and that out of Shs30 billion, they got Shs23b.
“We are handling their matter with the Ministry of Finance,” Dr Lukwago said.

“It’s government policy to support the local producers and we are also going to consider their request to speak to the donors and see how we can help them,” he added.

The numbers

300,000
Ugandans in need of ARVs but do not have access to them because they are poor.