Lusaka, 27th March 2024.
The Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies (ZAMMSA) Director General, Victor Nyasulu, has stated that the Agency needs to start manufacturing medicines in order to enhance the local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Zambia.
Speaking during a ZAMMSA and Cooperating Partners meeting at ZAMMSA head office today, Mr. Nyasulu highlighted Agency’s ambition to start manufacturing drugs locally to fully actualize its mandate.
“We need to go back to manufacturing drugs right here at ZAMMSA. We need to get back to our lost glory. It’s within the ZAMMSA mandate,” Mr. Nyasulu stated.
According to the ZAMMSA Act Number 9 of 2019, one of the Agency’s functions is to re-package and re-label medicines and medical supplies. This is an additional mandate to the core functions of Procurement, Storage and Distribution of medicines and medical supplies. Before 1990, ZAMMSA, which was Medical Stores Limited at the time, used to manufacture drugs as one of its functions.
The Cooperating Partners meeting, which was the first to be held this year, deliberated a wide array of issues affecting ZAMMSA such as financing, warehousing, distribution and the entire medicines and medical supply chain in Zambia.
Also discussed was the operationalization of the Medicines and Medical Supplies Fund (MMSF) which is aimed at creating one secure and efficient procurement system for ZAMMSA.
The Cooperating Partners emphasized that to attract more donor support, ZAMMSA should run a transparent, accountable and independent governance structure to ensure that the MMSF becomes effective.
The meeting was attended by Cooperating Partners such as United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Food Programme (WFP), The World Bank, Churches Association of Zambia (CHAZ), Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), Crown Agents, Global Health Supply Chain – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM), Africa Resource Center, World Health Organization (WHO), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ministry of Health (MOH) and The Global Fund (GF).
This is contained in a statement issued by ZAMMSA Senior Public Relations Manager Bradley Chingobe.
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