East African Gazette
Kampala
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has called upon speakers and Presiding Officers from the Commonwealth to embrace the spirit of Pan-Africanism Buy Africa Build Africa (BABA) aimed at building the image and competitiveness of the continent
“You are the Speakers who preside over nations budgets in your countries, you do oversight on how the government is doing its work, let us ensure that medicines produced here in Uganda and other African member states should not be procured from Europe or Asia,” Tayebwa urged
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Tayebwa made the remarks while leading a team of Speakers and Presiding Officers from the Commonwealth during the tour of CIPLA Quality Chemicals Industries Ltd (CIPLA QCIL) in Luzira, a Kampala suburb on Friday January 5, 2024 where the team were amazed at the factory’s capacity to produce essential medicines that African countries largely import from abroad.
According to Tayebwa said Africa has a population of 1.5 billion people and if we embrace the spirit of Pan-Africanism Buy Africa Build Africa, African will be compete in the global Market
Tayebwa remarked that some Speakers confessed that some of the companies from where their governments procure such essential medicines are not half of CIPLA QCIL in capacity. He commended the CIPLA QCIL which he said was now both a national and continental pride.
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“These are the people who saved countries like South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic when Europe and America could not export to Africa, they stepped in and saved Africa. This plant is no longer about quality chemicals, it is national and continental pride. Tayebwa said.
Tayebwa called African speakers to influence their countries to consider importing from Uganda medicines such as Anti-retroviral drugs, anti-malarial drugs, and medicines to treat diabetes which are currently manufactured at CIPLA QCIL.
Speaking after the tour Ackson Tulia, Speaker of Parliament of Tanzania commended the Ugandan government for coming up with such a factory with medicines that are tailored to solve African problems, saying this is an eye opener to us that we can solve African problems using African solutions, we are very proud of Uganda.
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Tulia said she was sure her counterparts from other African countries would spread the ‘gospel’ of the work being done at CIPLA Quality Chemicals, to other nations saying “the continent is ready to accommodate products from a fellow African nation”.
She was, however, concerned that the company supplies medicines to only 15 countries, moreover in Africa and urged the government to consider the Western market
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“I believe that Africa can also offer solutions to the rest of the world, we would like to see you cross the borders,” Tulia said.
The Chairman for CIPLA QCIL, Emmanuel Katongole, hailed Parliament for considering the plant for the Speakers’ visit, saying the company is able to manufacture anti-retroviral drugs, and anti-malarial drugs among others
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About CiplaQCIL
Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited (CiplaQCIL), was founded in June 2005 as a joint venture between Quality Chemicals Limited (QCL), a private limited company incorporated in Uganda for the importation and distribution of pharmaceutical drugs, and Cipla Ltd, a leading Indian pharmaceutical company
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It’s the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in East Africa and also one of the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), CiplaQCIL is one of the few pharmaceutical manufacturers in SSA to operate a World Health Organization (WHO) cGMP compliant facility that manufactures a range of WHO prequalified medicines for treating HIV/AIDS and malaria, manufacture antiretroviral, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and Hepatitis medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, malaria and Hepatitis among others
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