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Zimbabwe Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q1 2008
Business Monitor International, March 2008, Pages: 64
The Zimbabwe Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Zimbabwe's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
The struggling Zimbabwean economy, hyperinflation and the isolationist and internationally unacceptable government policy will continue to stifle recovery of the country’s once relatively buoyant pharmaceutical market. Most recently, the lack of foreign currency – necessary for the purchase of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from abroad – has prompted the local pharmaceutical industry representatives to call on the government for assistance. While some domestic producers have respectable production facilities, the country is 90%-reliant on imported APIs.
In the meantime, the cost of essential drugs has sky-rocketed as the country's economic crisis continues to worsen. The increased trend for pharmacies to import finished drugs using foreign currency sourced from the parallel market has resulted in most of the population – including the people eligible for medical aid schemes – now having no access to essential drugs. BMI expects another year of negative real GDP growth in 2008, with domestic investment remaining non-existent. Those international companies still operating in Zimbabwe have already written-off their investments, but should these be pushed to cede majority control, as the government plans, they will simply leave the country.
With no improvement in sight, by the end of 2012, the country’s pharmaceutical market is forecast to fall to US$4.3mn, from an estimated US$4.5mn in 2007. Rampant counterfeiting, difficult political and economic environments and the biased regulatory regime will continue to render imports minimal, as will the virtual collapse of the official healthcare system. On the other hand, charity and other international efforts, such as donations of essential medicines for the treatment of prevalent infectious disease in the country will continue to distort the real figures. Increasingly, traditional medicines and alternative treatments will become the only options for the bulk of the population on low incomes. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is slowly coming under control, although about 18% of the total population is infected.
Given the above issues, Zimbabwe was once again ranked last in BMI’s adjusted Business Environment Rankings for the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, with its score but a fraction of the scores received by leading markets. Endemic corruption both in the health service and among government officials has also helped create a burgeoning black market – with at least 80% of total economic activity now thought to be informal – and the government has been criticised for doing little to change the situation, as well as for measures preventing positive changes.
As a result, local companies are looking abroad for revenue, although the need to import raw materials renders even this proposition difficult. CAPS Holding and Five Plus Pharmaceuticals are the latest firms aiming to penetrate other African markets in a bid to avoid dire situation at home.
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