Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Medical Store Department (MSD) has in the past one year ventured into establishing seven key pharmaceutical industries to address high demand of drugs and medical devices upon outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For instance, the pandemic created global shortage of the products due to increased demand and travel restrictions.
According to MSD Director General Maj Gen Gabriel Mhidze, the crisis pushed the authority to embark on emergency intervention strategies to rescue Tanzanians from the scourge and that included establishing industries to avoid dependence on imported drugs and other medical supplies.
Clarifying, Maj Gen Mhidze said 16bn/- has been spent to implement the projects in Dar es Sa- laam and Njombe regions.
He said the authority is constructing four industries in Njombe, while three industries have been established in Dar es Salaam.
“I was appointed last year when the situation was very challenging due to Covid-19 pandemic. I had to organise our Pharmacists and Scien- tists here at the MSD to inter- vene by effectively use their expertise,” Maj Gen Mhidze explained on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, during a MSD-Media engagement workshop.
He said he was disturbed by fact that Tanzanians were digging deeper in their pockets to buy medical supplies such as sanitizers, face masks and other preventive medical de- vices.
He directed the MSD phar- macists to come up with ideas and proposals on how they could help the country produce some of essential medicines and medical supplies.
In response, the experts heeded his call, as so far, they have submitted 25 proposals for establishing such factories to locally manufacture essen- tial drugs and medical sup- plies.
Thereafter, the MSD start- ed putting the proposals into action, a move which saw the construction of the industries in Dar es Salaam and Njombe, with two specializing on the manufacture of sanitizers and face masks in Dar es Salaam becoming operational.
“We have so far imple- mented the proposals by 70 per cent.
The manufacture of these medical supplies has enabled a significant decrease of prices of the medical supplies in the lo- cal market,” the DG remarked.
Maj Gen Mhidze further noted that the MSD would also make the country produce its own gloves in the envisaged in- dustry in Njombe region.
“From November this year, we are going to have our own gloves for the first time.
The fu- ture is bright for the MSD,” he stated.
Elaborating, Ms Selwa Ha- mid, in charge of MSD Njombe industries, said the project start- ed last year by producing cap- sules, tablets, groves and syrup.
With construction of all four industries almost complet- ed, she said, the drugs’ industry would have capacity to produce 425,000 tablets per hour.
She further noted that an- other factory would have the capacity of producing 330,000 capsules per hour.
The four industries in Njombe would mainly be manufacturing essential drugs of Paracetamol, Amoxycillin, Erythromycin, Ampiclox and Ciproflaxin.
