The National Drug Authority (NDA), on Wednesday 6, launched the Pharmaceutical Quality Control Convention with programs that support local pharmaceutical manufacturers to boost innovation and production of essential, efficacious and good quality medicines.
At the launch of the convention held at Golf Course hotel in Kampala, Annet Ssenkindu the Director Quality Control and Laboratory at NDA noted that the annual convention comes with several initiatives to the local industry including, a bespoke training program in modern pharmaceutical quality control techniques, a comprehensive NDA-pharma round table, services support systems for key analytical procedures, skills enhancement and resource sign posting.
The National Drug Authority Act Cap 206 mandates the National Drug Authority specifically under section 5(f) to promote and control local production of essential drugs.
To achieve its mandate, Ssekindu said that NDA has continuously supported local manufacturers through different avenues such as fast tracking the authorization of domestically manufactured products, providing tax waivers on all the imported pharmaceutical raw materials which are major inputs in the production of medicines and public health products, providing relevant trainings, offering technical support and routine stakeholder engagements.
She revealed that during the covid-19 pandemic, NDA reinforced support for local manufacturers using different regulatory interventions which boosted local production of key covid-19 commodities such as; gloves, facemasks and antibiotics which were used for treatment of secondary infections.
“NDA believes that these efforts will strengthen the government of Uganda’s campaign of ‘Buy Uganda, Build Uganda’ that is aimed at fostering the growth of the local industry, improve public confidence. in the locally manufactured products, reduce turnaround times for the approval process, ensure resource optimization and efficiency and enhance exportation,” she noted.
Meanwhile, Abiaz Rwamwiri the NDA Public Relations Manager noted that quality is built at product manufacturing saying, “We want to build capacity of the local manufacturers in order to produce quality products.”
Rwamwiri noted that as NDA, they pledge to continuously innovate mechanisms that are aimed at protecting the public and bolstering economic prosperity for all Ugandans.
