Africa-Press – Mozambique. President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday called for more investment in the pharmaceutical industry in Mozambique, to reduce the volume of medicine imports and external dependence.
“The Ministry of Health and that of Industry and Commerce have the role of encouraging investments that stimulate the production of medicines, vaccines and other hospital products duly certified by the WHO [World Health Organization] within our country,” President Nyusi said during the inauguration of Lichinga Provincial Hospital in Niassa, northern Mozambique.
The head of state said that he wanted to free Mozambique from imports and reduce the level of “external dependence, especially in times of shortage” in medicines, recalling the period of vaccination against the new coronavirus.
According to the president, vaccine-producing countries during Covid-19 prioritised their own populations, and then “gave the leftovers” to Mozambique. There were even cases in which they offered vaccines with an expiry date of only a few weeks.
“I even refused some vaccines. There is one country that offered me a lot of vaccines, but there were only three weeks left before the vaccines expired,” Nyusi highlighted, reiterating the need to produce vaccines and other medicines in the country.
The head of state wants Mozambique to stop being “a mostly consuming country” and become “a producer and perhaps an exporter of diversified products, including medical [materials]”, he concluded.
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