Pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) members began their three-day meeting in Zambian capital Lusaka Monday to discuss ways of developing pharmaceutical industry in the region.

The meeting will first of all try to draw up a practical plan to harmonize regulatory frameworks of COMESA member countries with the aim of facilitating freer movement of pharmaceuticals in the region.

Twelve of COMESA's 20 member countries have joined the COMESA free trade area which allows them to trade on tariff- and quota-free basis. Such benefits, however, have not been extended to pharmaceutical products because of varied regulatory requirements of member countries. COMESA's 20 member countries have a total population of 385 million and a combined gross domestic product of 220 billion US dollars. According to COMESA secretary general Erastus Mwencha, the region imported 664 million dollars worth of pharmaceutical products in 2001. The removal of trade barriers will boost pharmaceutical production in the region, where most of the producers have been running at far below their capacities, he said.

He called for collaboration among national regulatory authorities and the private sector, such as the share of laboratories to utilize existing facilities for mutual benefits.

Zambian Health Minister Brian Chituwo stressed the importance of the pharmaceutical industry to job creation, poverty reduction, diversification of national economies and improvement of health services.

He expressed the concern that COMESA countries are even importing essential medicine and pharmaceutical inputs, when they have the raw materials to produce them.

Chituwo reminded the participants that India, a major supplier of pharmaceutical products to the region, will no longer be allowed to produce generic medicine for patented medicine under the World Trade Organization rules.

"This development will have serious consequences on reliability and affordability of these medicines in most of the COMESA countries," he said, adding that the region needs to take urgent action to find alternative sources of medicine.

Chituwo also said the development in India is an opportunity for the private sector in the COMESA region to fill in the gap.

Source: Xinhua