President Museveni on Friday commissioned Dei Bio Pharma Pharmaceuticals plant in Matugga, Wakiso District.
Speaking at the ceremony, Museveni said Africa’s pathogenic economy, which offers huge economic opportunities, is being taken advantage of by others and Africa is totally absent.
“Hence, this project comes at the right time. The current location of this project is our former battlefield/Dwaniro. I am happy that this former battlefield is now an industrial park and an avenue for employment and wealth creation,” he said.
The president thanked the proprietor, Mathias Magoola, for insisting on this dream despite several attempts by the wrong people to fail him.
“Frustrating wealth creators is against our agenda as the NRM and as a country, it is against our message of industrialization,” Museveni noted.
The president lauded Magoola for taking in the advice that has led to the formation of a state of the art locally owned biological drugs and vaccines manufacturing plant.
“I salute Magoola. Despite being persecuted, he stayed put. He is a fighter. I salute him, his family and colleagues because this is part of ‘Resistance Movement’. We resist and stay on course. Now Magoola had to fight. Every African who wants to do something important, neo-colonialist puppets fight him. They don’t see value in important things,” he pointed out.
He said the NRM supported by young people like Magoola is bringing new sectors which never existed in Uganda.
“These are big economies. You can see that we are totally entering a new phase of Uganda by broadening our economy. If we can have a consensus among all leaders, the political, economic and cultural leaders and all Ugandans we can move faster.”
He also thanked Equity Bank Kenya for supporting this project.
“I must say they have got good spectacles to see where the value is. My Equity Bank friends, I urge you not to worry, supporting investment in Uganda has massive benefits, it is good business. Asante Sana [Thank you very much].”
Benedict Muhigo, the Ag. Managing Director of DEI Biopharma who represented Mr. Magoola, said that the facility will produce all of the biologic medicines listed as essential drugs, including filgrastim, erythropoietin, and trastuzumab, among several others, the first such source of biosimilars in Africa.
He said the plant is up and ready to take Uganda’s pharmaceutical industry to the next level.
He lauded President Museveni for seeing ‘gold’ in Dei Biopharma and ensuring that it became a success story.
“Some people whom Mzee had instructed to support this idea. They started fighting it because they thought it was wastage of time,” he noted.
He added: “But Mzee being a Visionary leader. He sees opportunities where others don’t see. Behind all this success, it has been you.”
He further thanked the president for intervening through Uganda Development Bank which gave them USD 20million.
“Your Excellency, we still need your support to finish setting up the remaining buildings. Our projected revenue in 5 years is expected to be USD5 billion but our target is USD10 billion in 10 years.”
He said the DEI Biopharma portfolio also includes nutraceuticals starting with the first US-patented alleviation of Parkinson’s disease that will go into distribution within 90 days.
In February 2017, Ugandan scientists developed a drug (DEI Anti-malaria) from natural herbs which kills malaria-causing parasites within the human body in three days using its natural compounds extracted from plants.
The lead-investigator, Dr Patrick Ogwang, a pharmacist and lecturer at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, said laboratory tests have proved that the drug is safe and efficacious.
In March 2020, DEI Group of Industries launched a first of its kind hand and surface sanitizer (CovaNil™) that was guaranteed to remove all viruses including the Wuhan COVID-19, the Corona Virus.
CovaNil™ became the first product on the market in the fight against Corona virus in Uganda.