Africa-Press – Zambia. The Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) is set to dispose of expired medicines and medical supplies with a staggering value of K129 million. This action, scheduled for August 15, 2025, while presented as a success story of improved inventory management, cannot be downplayed as a minor issue. The sheer value of the discarded stock represents a significant and unacceptable loss of public resources, especially considering the critical health needs of the Zambian population.
While ZAMMSA’s Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs, Bradley Chingobe, stated that the expired stock constitutes only 1.2 percent of the total medicines procured between January 2023 and December 2024, and is within the 2 percent acceptable threshold of the National Health Sector Supply Chain Strategy (2022–2026), this statistic must be viewed with a critical eye. A loss of K129 million, regardless of its percentage of the total procurement, is a substantial amount of money that could have been used to save lives. The fact that the disposal rate is lower than the previous period’s 3 percent is an improvement, but it does not justify the current financial waste.
The list of items to be disposed of is particularly alarming. It includes antiretrovirals (ARVs), cancer treatment commodities, renal supplies for dialysis, and HIV test kits. These are not merely “expired stock”; they are essential, often life-saving, supplies for some of the most vulnerable individuals in Zambia’s healthcare system. Disposing of such critical items due to expiration raises serious questions about the efficiency and foresight of the supply chain management.
Mr. Chingobe attributed the expiration to factors such as regimen changes, transit or storage damage, and low demand in certain health facilities. While these may be contributing factors, they do not fully account for the scale of the problem. A robust and efficient supply chain should be able to anticipate and adapt to these issues to minimize waste. The loss of such a significant quantity of critical medicines points to systemic flaws that must be addressed beyond simply meeting a statistical threshold.
The public has a right to demand accountability for this substantial loss. While ZAMMSA may be operating within a set “acceptable” rate, this should not be a justification for complacency. A K129 million loss is a failure of the system, and every effort must be made to eliminate it entirely.
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