A cross section of Tanzania Pharmaceutical Students Association (TAPSA) listening to the guest of honour the Chief Government Pharmacist Daudi Msasi (not in the photo)/during the 10th TAPSA annual scientific conference held in Iringa Region recently. (Photo by Friday Simbaya)
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By Friday Simbaya, Iringa
The pharmacy students have been challenged to invest in pharmaceutical industries rather than investing into dispensing. Dispensing refers to the process of preparing and giving medicine to a named person on the basis of a prescription.
The statement was made by Government Chief Pharmacist, Daudi Msasi during the 10th Tanzania Pharmaceutical Students Association (TAPSA) Annual Scientific Conference held in Iringa region recently, under the theme “Pharmacy practice in Tanzania; a review of the past, the present and future.”
He said that as upcoming pharmacists you must take up such challenges by building factories to lessen the dependence on imported drugs.
Tanzania, according to Msasi, spends up to one billion US dollars every year to import medicines and other hospital facilities while it could minimize such costs by building local plants for producing medicines.
He challenged would-be pharmacists to take up the potential markets including local market through Medical Stores Department (MSD) as well as directly to private health facilities.
Msasi established that the government spends more than 1bn/- US Dollars of which 85% to 94% of all medicines and medical supplies come from overseas.
Other potential markets are East African market of six the East African countries and SADC market-the southern African development community (SADC) countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Seychelles, Angola and DRC Congo.
Adding that tax incentives for pharmacy and device projects is another advantage for pharmacists to establish pharmaceutical factories in Tanzania because the import duty and value added tax (VAT) were at zero rates (0%).
He said that there too much of using generic pharmaceuticals in the country, Generic drugs are copies of brand-name drugs that have exactly the same dosage, intended use, effects, side effects, route of administration, risks, safety, and strength as the original drug.
The overview of pharmaceutical and device manufacturing sector in the country, is that there are 14 domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers who have been registered including eleven (11) human medicines, two (2) veterinary medicines and one (1) devices manufacturing facility for producing medical supplies respectively.
On her part, the monitoring, evaluation and operational research manager from Health Promotion and System Strengthening (HPSS) Project, Vicky-Sidney Peter Msamba said there is an overuse of antibiotic drugs in the country.
The PHSS project carried out the survey on the prescribers and dispensers (drug outlets) to measure knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Dodoma region recently.
She said that 66 prescribers in 46 public health centers (PHC) facilities including clinical officers, medical attendants, nurses, clinical assistants were interviewed.
Also 81 dispensers in 61 drug dispensing outlets were interviewed including nurses, medical attendant, laboratory assistants, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians and clinical assistants.
Msamba said that despite knowledge, practice (prescribing and dispensing) is poor with significant overuse of antibiotic and poor adherence to standard treatment guidelines (STG).
She noted that there was antibiotic usage in treating the following diseases cough, sore throat, runny nose and every fever, adding that knowledge does not directly translate into behavior and practice, hence behavior change is needed.
However, the government through the Ministry of Health said the Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as a global concern was due to the behavior of some pharmacists to administer drugs without following the principles of such professional procedures.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi.
Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change when they are exposed to antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics), according the world health organization (WHO) report.
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