By Our Reporter
At Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited’s (QCIL) first annual general meeting (AGM), the company announced it was poised for future success, thanks to key growth drivers such as the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), private market growth and product portfolio expansion. The company’s production capacity also increased from 80 million tablets per month to 130 million tablets over the past six months. The company is undertaking an ambitious technology transfer programme to enable new products to be manufactured at its facility including a paediatric treatment for malaria, a treatment to prevent tuberculosis in newly diagnosed HIV patients and a cure for Hepatitis C.
According to the Ugandan Health Ministry, more one million people have been infected with malaria in Uganda in the past two months : CiplaQCIL has capacity to help remedy this pandemic, holding as it does and emergency stockpile of malaria treatments enough to treat 1.25mn adult patients. It was recently awarded the first tender by the USA President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) for WHO Prequalified antimalarials to an African-based manufacturer. Apart from the PMI, the company also has a long-running supply agreement with the Government of Uganda as well as a supply contract with the Global Fund, which has enabled CiplaQCIL to supply more than 25 million malaria treatments across Africa in 2018/19.
CEO of CiplaQCIL, Nevin Bradford, said: “The company is strategically placed to maximize this opportunity due to the in-market presence, cost advantage due to lower freight charges versus non-African based manufacturers and our heightened ability to respond quickly to orders.” This substantiates our mission to provide African solutions for Africans.
CiplaQCIL is also making inroads into the private market in order to diversify the company’s patient based in Uganda, in order to treat not only those dependent on the government health sector but also private patients.
The business goal is to increase the product portfolio through new medicines for the treatment of marginalized or dreaded diseases and empower Uganda and Africa to treat the most feared diseases (malaria, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B) through more affordable, quality and efficacious medicines. Bradford said: “We currently supply ARVs to more than 500 000 people living with HIV in Uganda and Zambia. We’re also exploring technology transfers to enable us to manufacture other medication such as oncology drugs, where accessibility to treatment is still a big challenge in Uganda.”
CiplaQCIL plans to be registered in 22 countries in Africa by 2020, serving as a platform to build partnerships in these new markets. Although it is not expected that the journey will always be smooth, CiplaQCIL’s robust growth strategy bodes well for realising future potential and enables long-term growth.
With this expansion in mind, CiplaQCIL has completed a Ushs 12 billion, 4 500 pallet storage facility, distribution centre and warehouse in December 2018
Executive Chairman, Emmanuel Katongole, said: “As a company newly listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange, we hope to create avenues for regular and constructive dialogue with our shareholders to align their interests with the business objectives all the while striving to serve all Ugandans to eradicate disease and ensure quality of life.”