Kenya Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q4 2009

BMI calculates Kenya's pharmaceutical expenditure to have been KES15.85bn (US$229mn) in 2008. By 2013, we expect the total amount spent on prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to have reached a value of KES31.13bn (US$522mn), equating to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.46% in local currency terms. However, the country's underdeveloped healthcare system has meant that drug expenditure has fallen from 0.84% of GDP in 2004 to just 0.75% of GDP in 2008. BMI calculates that by 2013 drug expenditure will decline further, to just 0.65% of GDP.

In BMI's Business Environment Rankings for Q409, Kenya has remained in 15th place in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, above Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and its overall pharmaceutical rating has also remained at 32.2. Globally Kenya is ranked in 69th position, above Nigeria and Zimbabwe and below Ukraine and Venezuela.

Kenya's first ever anti-counterfeit bill was signed into law in January 2009. However, it defines the process of counterfeiting as 'the manufacture, production, packaging, re-packaging, labelling or making, whether in Kenya or elsewhere, of any goods whereby those protected goods are imitated in such manner and to such a degree that those other goods are identical or substantially similar copies of the protected goods'. As a result, in July 2008, several NGOs and HIV/AIDS patients challenged the Anti-Counterfeit Bill and filed a lawsuit against the Kenyan government. They claimed the Bill was not looking after the interests of the country's HIV/AIDS patients, as it reduces access to cheap generic HIV medicines. The majority of Kenya's HIV/AIDS patients rely on imported first-line generic antiretrovirals (ARVs) including 3TC (lamivudine), AZT (zidovudine) and NVP (nevirapine).

Additionally, in July 2009 the Kenyan government launched the Mission for Essential Drugs (Meds), a quality control lab accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are also plans to computerise the medicine supply chain system in order to monitor drugs from the procurement to the consumption stage. BMI welcomes the government's efforts to stop the country's citizens from consuming sub-standard counterfeit medicines that are prevalent across all classes of drugs.

In April 2009, Dawa Limited was accused of selling unregistered drugs to the country's citizens. The Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), responsible for the registration of pharmaceuticals and medical devices in Kenya, has said that only 35 of Dawa's products are currently registered. The company manufactures and sells over 100 generic medicines in Kenya, including analgesics, anti-malarials and antibiotics. Furthermore, in June 2009, the Kenyan government banned the drugmaker from carrying out any business with the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA). It was claimed that the company had imported drugs from China but was going to sell them in the Kenyan market claiming that they were manufactured locally.