Haleon Kenya yesterday convened a high-level breakfast meeting focused on bolstering local manufacturing of health products in the country.
The forum brought together key stakeholders, including the Permanent Secretary for Medical Services, representatives from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, the Kenya Medical Association, the Kenya Dental Association, the Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry, among others.
The talks focused on working together to fortify Kenya's pharmaceutical manufacturing sector and enhance the availability of high-quality healthcare solutions.
About Haleon
Haleon is a UK stock exchange-listed, multinational consumer healthcare company established in July 2022 as a result of a corporate spin-off from British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The company is behind popular brands including Sensodyne, Calpol, Panadol, and Eno, among others.
In October 2022, GSK announced its plans to cease active production in Kenya, transitioning to a third-party distributor-led model, a move that sparked concerns over the impact on the availability of key commodities.
Years later, Haleon Kenya, by taking over GSK’s former state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, has emerged as a key player in ensuring consumer products, traditionally associated with GSK, remain in supply uninterrupted.
What was said
Dr. Evah Amwayi, Haleon’s head of regulatory affairs, explained the importance of self-care and why patients and caregivers need to take ownership of their health by first seeking the right information.
She stated that the company’s recent initiatives, including the Haleon Pain Management Institute, are aimed at bridging any knowledge gaps and ensuring that both healthcare workers and patients are educated on making more informed health decisions, resulting in better outcomes.
RELATED: GSK Kenya rebrands to Haleon Kenya Ltd
Richlove Mensah, UK’s Director for Trade and Investment for Kenya and East Africa, shared the UK’s desire for African countries to enhance their capacity to manufacture health products locally and become more self-reliant.
“The UK is proud to support local production in the African region, thereby improving supply chain resilience and access to safe and effective medicines in the region,” stated Richlove.
Mr. Mensah stated that he was impressed by Haleon’s dedication, efforts, and dream of improving the level of pharmaceutical manufacturing in the African region despite the existing challenges.
In particular, he insisted that a lack of an enabling regulatory framework that facilitates local manufacturing is a problem and therefore insisted that the government develop and implement laws, policies, and regulations that would allow the sector to grow.
The Permanent Secretary for Medical Services, Kenya, Dr. Ouma Oluga, echoed these sentiments.
He acknowledged the importance of enhancing local manufacturing, stating that the COVID-19 experiences highlighted the vulnerability of the region’s pharma supply chain stemming from an overreliance on medical imports.
Therefore, he explained that growth of the local manufacturing industry of medicines was top of the government’s agenda.
“There is political commitment from the President to support local manufacturing of health commodities in Kenya. The expected dividend is to make the country’s healthcare sector resilient in that supplies will no longer be adversely affected by unforeseen global supply chain disruptions.”
Dr. Ouma Oluga, Permanent Secretary for Medical Services, Kenya.
The PS revealed that although currently, only 20% of products in Kenya’s Essential Medicines List (KEML) are manufactured locally, the government has set a target of having 50% of medicines in this list supplied by local manufacturers.
To achieve this goal, Dr. Oluga emphasized the importance of fostering partnerships with existing local manufacturers like Haleon, as well as engaging key global industry stakeholders—including patent holders, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) producers, and other critical players in the pharmaceutical value chain.
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Writer
Bevin Likuyani
Bevin Likuyani is a pharmacist with a Master of Pharmacy in Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance and an MBA from the School of Business, University of Nairobi. He is also a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) from the American (Association of Supply Chain Management).
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