Cutting-Edge Medicine Storage

Reporting from Zimbabwe PROBLEM MASAU

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun hands over a golden key to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the handover ceremony of the warehouse in Harare on 6 October(CHINESE EMBASSY IN ZIMBABWE)

Zimbabwe’s health sector gets big boost with state-of-the-art pharmaceutical warehouse

An imposing new building stands out at Sally Mugabe Hospital campus in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. The shiny multi-million-dollar structure in orange and beige is the country’s biggest pharmaceutical warehouse, built in record time thanks to assistance from the Chinese government.

The project, costing $22 million, was constructed by China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group)Co. Ltd. (AFECC), with work beginning in 2019 and handed over to Zimbabwe in October.

The warehouse, run by National Pharmaceutical

Warehouse Co. (NatPharm), will help the country with drug and medicine storage. NatPharm is a not-for-profit company, responsible for procuring and distributing all drugs and medical supplies to public health institutions in Zimbabwe.

Speaking at the handover ceremony of the warehouse,Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Guo Shaochun told Xinhua News Agency that the project demonstrates the time-tested friendship between the two countries,adding that it will play an important role in Zimbabwe’s medical and health undertakings, especially in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guo said the warehouse project, which is one of several that feature China aid to Zimbabwe in diverse fields including agriculture, education and the health sector, was timely as Zimbabwe has been searching for ways to stimulate localised production of pharmaceutical products, in the process of reducing its over-reliance on imports.

Long-term pharma vision

Before the new warehouse, NatPharm had experienced challenges in storing drugs in a proper way.

“There were cases of improper handling of expired drugs - which were sold to private pharmacies instead of being destroyed,” said Ruth Labode, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care of Zimbabwe.

Many medications and medical products are susceptible to heat, humidity, and other conditions.Zimbabwe’s temperatures range seasonally between 6 and 38 degrees Celsius, and humidity can vary between 42 percent and 75 percent, presenting a significant challenge to cold chain storage.

“We needed this [warehouse] to preserve most of the drugs that are susceptible to high temperatures and humidity. This is also where we are keeping our vaccines, which also requires certain temperatures,”said NatPharm spokesperson Munyaradzi Musiiwa.

Speaking at the handover ceremony for the new warehouse in October, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the new facility had increased floor space, which enables storage of large quantities of medicines and improvement in the health delivery system towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.

The warehouse, one of the largest in the Southern African region, has a surface area of about 43,000 square metres and a building area of about 13,700 square metres. Its designed capacity will reach 10,000 pallets from the current 6,000 pallet capacity, according to Xinhua.

“It is applauded that the new warehouse is designed to enable receipt of bulk products from multiple suppliers.Storage and packaging will also be enabled for onward delivery to lower-level regional warehouses and facilities across the country,” said President Mnangagwa.

The opening of the warehouse is part of a vision launched in June last year by Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, called the 2021-2025 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy. The aim of the strategy is to promote local production of drugs which at the time was only 12 percent of requirements.The strategy also aims to improve the pharmaceutical industry’s contribution to public health. This is to be done by increasing the country’s supplies of essential medicines. Chiwenga, who also doubles up as the country’s Minister of Health and Child Care, is reported in Xinhua as saying the strategy should result in the provision of affordable medicines to citizens. Many people on medical aid are currently paying huge shortfalls when buying medicines because their medical aid societies only pay prescribed rates for specified drugs. “The overall thrust of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy is to make medicines accessible and affordable to citizens,” said Chiwenga.

It is applauded that the new warehouse is designed to enable receipt of bulk products from multiple suppliers.Storage and packaging will also be enabled for onward delivery to lower-level regional warehouses and facilities across the country.

EMMERSON MNANGAGWA Zimbabwe’s President

Medical cooperation

Chiwenga said China has been supplying medicines and drugs, and sending medical experts to Zimbabwe,adding, “We owe gratitude to the Chinese government and its generous people. Their contribution to our country’s medical system cannot be underestimated.”

In 2020, state-owned Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe made a donation of medical goods worth$55,000 to help the country.

Operating under the banner of the Chamber of Chinese Enterprises in Zimbabwe, the companies donated medicines to the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and surgical masks to various provinces,the Department of Immigration and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

Visiting representatives of Zimbabwean students selected to study in China take a group photo in the warehouse on 9 September(CHINA-AID NATPHARM PROJECT)

The country’s largest referral hospital Parirenyatwa received medicines worth $5,000; the Department of Immigration got 40,000 surgical masks; Zimbabwe Revenue Authority received 20,000 masks while Matabeleland South and Midlands Provinces each got 20,000 surgical masks.

China has also been on the forefront to help Zimbabwe to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly a third of Zimbabweans have received at least a single dose of the Chinese vaccine.

“The assistance, comprising 4 million Sinopharm doses and 6 million Sinovac doses, is in addition to the 2 million doses Zimbabwe has received as donations since February 2021 from the People’s Republic of China,” President Mnangagwa said earlier this year.

In addition to the state-of-the-art pharmaceutical warehouse, in recent years, China has supported Zimbabwe in constructing many other major infrastructure projects.

For example, the new parliament building, 1,000 China-aid boreholes and Mahusekwa District Hospital were all built with China grants. Other major projects like the Kariba South Hydropower Extension, Victoria Falls International Airport Extension, Hwange Thermal Power Station Expansion, RGM International Airport Expansion and phase 3 of Netone’s mobile broadband upgrade were all constructed with Chinese concessional loans.

“We also helped to rebuild houses, schools and clinics destroyed by Cyclone Idai under a joint initiative between China and UNDP. These major projects play a critical role in the development of the country and make a real difference in the life of ordinary Zimbabweans,”said Guo. CA