The Chief Executive Officer of GSK, Sir Andrew Witty who reveled this at 5th EU-Africa Business Forum in Brussels, capital of Belgium, noted that the selected sites would be announced in due course, and subject to governments’ agreement.
Over the next five years, GSK will look to partner with a number of African countries to develop domestic manufacturing capacity and capability.
This will see GSK invest up to £100m to expand its existing manufacturing capability in Nigeria and Kenya and build up to five new factories in Africa, he added.
Sir Witty explained: “The new facilities will be built to globally recognised good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards and will make locally relevant products such as antibiotics and respiratory and HIV medicines (on behalf of ViiV Healthcare).
“The initial focus will be on secondary manufacture with the aim to transfer the technology, skills and knowledge needed to enable the local manufacture of more complex products over time.
“The factories will create a network of localized industry and local employment for a highly skilled workforce drawn from surrounding communities”.
To support the scale-up of domestic manufacturing and supply, GSK he indicated would establish up to 25 academic Chairs at local African universities in related areas such as pharmaceutical sciences, public health, engineering and logistics.
These roles will facilitate the development of new courses as well as internships and student exchanges, and will be pivotal to ensuring manufacturing capability is locked into the continent to help attract further manufacturing investment.
GSK is also taking steps to improve and simplify its supply chain with the creation of regional supply hubs that will help to reduce stock shortages and local supply partnerships to enable more GSK products and medicines to reach under-served rural communities in Africa.
These steps will help reduce Africa’s reliance on imported medicines, improving the security of supply and reducing production costs and transportation which in time should help contribute to lower prices.
The company would also optimise its portfolio of medicines for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by working in collaboration with its local partner, Aspen, and with regulators to increase the registration of medicines and vaccines in its existing portfolio, such as its Amoxil antibiotic and its Ventolin respiratory medicine, where not already available.
–African Eye News
