The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu Senior Reporter
THE Government policy that allows for the duty-free importation of processed anti-retroviral drugs is only benefiting foreign companies while the failure by local companies to make use of a rebate on raw materials to make the drugs is aiding the demise of a fast-dying pharmaceutical sector and has seen the country losing about $60 million in potential revenue every year from the Global Fund and the Aids Levy.
Last year the Global Fund allocated $426 million for various HIV programmes that will be carried out over three years but the country is losing out on potential revenue through the importation of ARVs, while about 80 percent of all drugs consumed locally are from India.
Global Fund, which funds Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria projects in the country together with other donors, is the major contributor that enables Zimbabwe to procure essential drugs such as ARVs.
In a bid to save the local pharmaceutical sector, Government introduced a rebate on raw materials for the manufacture of drugs for CAPS, Datlabs, Varichem, Gulf Drug, Pharmanova, Plus Five, Zimbabwe Pharmaceuticals, Ecomed and Graniteside Chemicals. However, the country still imports the bulk of its drugs while locally manufactured ARVs are too expensive.
“Please note that no duty is levied on medicines used in the management of chronic illnesses. Therefore, anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) do not attract duty.
“There is a rebate of duty (duty free concession) on the raw materials used in the manufacture of drugs, which is known as the Customs and Excise (Pharmaceutical Manufacturers) (Rebate) Regulations, 2005 published in Statutory Instrument No 174 of 2005 as amended by Statutory Instrument 179 of 2014. What it means is that the approved manufacturers import the raw materials duty free as long as they are going to be used in the manufacture of drugs. The raw materials that qualify are listed in these pieces of legislation,” Ms Florence Jambwa, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority director for legal and corporate services, said.
The executive secretary of the Country Co-ordinating Mechanism for the Global Fund, Mr Oscar Mundida, told Sunday News of funding for ARVs: “For 2014 alone, the Global Fund spent $58 424 000 on ARVs alone. The Government gives figures of the people that are in need of ARVs and funds are allocated accordingly.”
The fund is to be used to support anti-retroviral treatment provision for close to one million people that are infected as well as more than 145 000 pregnant women between 2014 and 2016.
The national response to HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe is financed through the National Aids Trust Fund commonly known as the Aids Levy, Global Fund, bilateral and multilateral institutions. The allocation of funds from the Aids Levy to different programme areas is done through a National Aids Council (NAC) board-guided annual work plan and budget which is approved by the Minister of Health and Child Care.
Director of the Aids and TB unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi said most of the funding for HIV was from the international community and it came with conditions.
