The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is pushing to strengthen pharmaceutical manufacturing across the region, with quality assurance emerging as a key requirement for businesses looking to participate in the growing industry.
The issue was highlighted during the 9th SADC Industrialisation Week at the Durban International Convention Centre in KwaZulu-Natal, where government leaders, policymakers, businesses and industry stakeholders gathered to discuss regional industrialisation and economic growth.
The focus on building an integrated pharmaceutical and medical technology sector could create opportunities for businesses that supply products and services to larger manufacturers.
Quality remains critical
Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS) chief executive officer Eve Christine Gadzikwa said investment in quality systems would be essential to building a competitive regional pharmaceutical industry.
“We have an opportunity right now to form an integrated community for the pharmaceutical industry and medical technology,” she said.
Meeting these quality requirements could be critical to accessing opportunities created by a stronger regional pharmaceutical value chain for businesses.
“The most critical investment should be in quality by ensuring that whatever we’re selling to the public is actually safe, that its efficacy is good and the quality is also good,” Gadzikwa said.
As pharmaceutical production expands, opportunities could extend beyond medicine manufacturers to businesses providing supporting services, inputs, technology, packaging, logistics and other specialised services.
COVID-19 highlighted local manufacturing gaps
Gadzikwa said the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of strengthening local production and reducing reliance on international supply chains.
“COVID taught us a lot of things. One of the things it taught us is the need for us to bring our solutions closer because logistics became very difficult.”
She said SADC supported local industries during the pandemic, including businesses producing chemicals, while also working with pharmaceutical companies and regulators to ensure their facilities met accreditation requirements.
“We are working in the voluntary domain and with the private sector to ensure we have a region that has good quality products, with good safety, that the community can rely upon.”
Innovation can open the value chain
South Africa’s Department of Science, Technology and Innovation director-general, Dr Mlungisi Cele, said innovation would be central to the industrialisation ambitions.
“There will be no industrialisation without innovation,” he said.
Cele said research and technology development would be important if SADC is to take advantage of the opportunities presented by greater regional integration.
