2023-06-01 16:48:50
(APS) – The development of an efficient local pharmaceutical industry could put a brake on the problem of fake medicines, the proliferation of which in Africa is often explained by economic factors, such as the inaccessibility of products to poor populations, believes Abdelouahed Kerrar , CEO of Biopharm, an Algerian pharmaceutical company.
“There are fake drugs because the right drugs are not always available to everyone,” he said in an interview with APS.
Biopharm’s CEO is staying in Dakar as part of the 22nd International Pharmaceutical Forum (FPI). This meeting is held in the Senegalese capital of the 1is to June 4, on the theme ”Pharmaceutical Sovereignty for Africa”.
Asked about the problem of counterfeit drugs, he noted that it is a “real scourge” whose eradication is an “absolute priority” in Africa. If we fail to achieve such a goal, “all the efforts made everywhere within the framework of our public health policies will be doomed to failure”, he warned.
He affirms that the effectiveness of the effective fight against counterfeit medicines supposes ”that we make available medicines of guaranteed quality and at affordable prices”.
In this perspective, he pleaded for the development of local pharmaceutical sectors which should constitute ”real obstacles to this problem”.
Abdelouahed Kerrar also presented the pharmaceutical industry as ”an important tool in the performance of public health policies”, because it allows us to better ”prepare for the vagaries of imports”. In this, he gave the example of Algeria which has set up some 200 pharmaceutical units in less than 15 years.
According to him, the local pharmaceutical industry today covers more than 70 percent of the needs of the Algerian market with a considerable impact on prices.
This performance was made possible by “tax facilitations” and other advantages, including a very advantageous reimbursement system available to local drug manufacturers, he explained.
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