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Policy challenges: MSD struggles with drug trading within SADC countries
What you need to know:
- The initial enthusiasm surrounding the agreement, signed after SADC's health ministers' meeting in Pretoria, highlighted Tanzania's well-equipped MSD as the ideal candidate.
Dar es Salaam. Despite a promising agreement in 2021 to become a major supplier of medical goods to Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations, the Tanzanian Medical Stores Department (MSD) currently serves only three of the 16 member countries.
This limited reach falls short of the potential to serve the region's vast population of 390.24 million.
The initial enthusiasm surrounding the agreement, signed after SADC's health ministers' meeting in Pretoria, highlighted Tanzania's well-equipped MSD as the ideal candidate.
However, numerous policy and operational hurdles have hampered progress.
The then SADC executive secretary, Stergomena Tax, said Tanzania met all the criteria despite stiff competition.
“I congratulate the experts from both sides (Tanzania and SADC),” said Ms Tax during the signing of the agreement.
She added, “This is a unique opportunity for Tanzania and MSD. I call upon the department to finalise the procedures as soon as possible so that the job can start immediately.”
However, during an exclusive interview with The Citizen, MSD senior executives said the deal had been adversely affected by the existence of numerous policy challenges.
“We are trading medicine, medical, and laboratory equipment to three countries only. They include Tanzania, Comoro, and the Seychelles,” said MSD chief executive officer Mavere Tukai.
He said the programme’s initial rollout was affected by inadequate preparatory systems and the demand for comprehensive policies and guidelines to support the distribution of health products across the member countries.
Mr Tukai said each member country had its own regulatory framework, policies, and guidelines required to be put in place to support the initiative.
Furthermore, a new procurement system dubbed the SADC Med Database has been launched for the updating, deployment, and implementation of medicines and health commodities.
“However, there are several issues that need to be sorted out before taking off. The SADC Secretariat, in collaboration with MSD, will ensure some products needed by certain countries are introduced into the system,” he said.
According to him, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Lesotho, and Botswana have shown interest in starting to procure the products through the system that will have all the necessary information, including types of medicine, medicine, and laboratory equipment, as well as their respective prices.
Regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles
Mr Tukai said regulations require drugs registered in Tanzania to be registered in other member countries for distribution to be possible.
The requirement, he said, necessitates a coordinated effort through regulatory agencies to accelerate the acceptance process.
Furthermore, he said international trade criteria between governments do not allow direct sales; instead, MSD can only lend drugs to other countries, requiring bilateral agreements to manage the sales and drug taxation.
Enhancing local production
During the interview, MSD chairperson of the board of directors, Ms Rosemary Slaa, said prioritising local products to foster regional industrial growth was of paramount importance, especially in enhancing quality to win the global competition.
“However, meeting regional demands requires substantial policy support to create a conducive environment for prosperity and the expansion of local industries,” she said.
Economic and supply chain challenges
Ms Slaa said MSD faces economic viability issues in maintaining a consistent drug supply, noting that strong inter-country coordination and policy alignment are needed to meet regional demands.
“Access to cancer drugs is another major issue of concern, with high costs driven by patent protections and the limited availability of generic alternatives,” she said.
Furthermore, she said collaborative purchasing agreements and negotiations within SADC could help mitigate the staggering costs of medicine, medical, and laboratory equipment.
Measures to mitigate the challenges
Mr Tukai said apart from the SADC Med Database aimed at streamlining procurement and information sharing across the region, MSD was also expanding its infrastructure through the construction of new warehouses and improving existing ones.
He said addressing the outlined challenges was crucial to achieving regional distribution of medicine and medical and laboratory equipment to improve the provision of health services across the SADC member states."
