HARARE - The $2,5 million budgetary allocation to NatPharm will close the drug provision gap that has left Zimbabwe largely dependent on donors and middlemen for medication, Health and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa has said.
NatPharm is charged with the procurement of drugs for all state-run hospitals, and is mandated to guarantee the availability of safe, effective and affordable medical supplies to various public institutions.
Donors are currently providing 98 percent of the 40 percent primary drugs needed by the country, according to Parirenyatwa, with middlemen providing the other 60 percent.
“The problem with NatPharm has been funding,” Parirenyatwa said on the side-lines of a Nestle-organised donation event in Harare last week.
“I am happy that for the first time, we managed to lobby the treasury to allocate some money to NatPharm
“There is nothing good about relying on donor funding in drug provision.
In as much as they mean good, they can just pull out and what would happen to all those people?
“As a country, we mean well and this shows government commitment towards capacitating NatPharm”.
Itai Rusike, the Community Working Group on Health executive director, said the vote would boost the operations of the struggling company.
“A capital transfer allocation of $2,5 million to NatPharm is a positive in the 2014 budget.
“This will go a long way in capitalising the operations of NatPharm,” Rusike said.
With nine licensed pharmaceutical companies, Zimbabwe used to be the second largest drug manufacturing country in the region.