The National Drug Authority (NDA) has today launched and held the first Pharmaceutical Quality Control Convention with programs that support local pharmaceutical manufacturers to boost innovation and production of essential, efficacious, and good quality medicines.
The annual convention comes with several initiatives for the local industry including; a bespoke training program in modern pharmaceutical quality control techniques, a comprehensive NDA-pharma round table, services support systems for key analytical procedures, skills enhancement, and resource signposting.
Abiaz Rwamwiri, the NDA Head of Public Relations said in a statement that the National Drug Authority Act Cap 206 mandates the National Drug Authority specifically under section 5(f) to promote and control local production of essential drugs.
“To achieve its mandate, NDA has continuously supported local manufacturers through different avenues such as; fast-tracking the authorization of domestically manufactured products, providing tax waivers on all the imported pharmaceutical raw materials which are major inputs in the production of medicines and public health products, providing relevant training, offering technical support and routine stakeholder engagements,” he said.
“During the covid-19 pandemic, NDA reinforced support for local manufacturers using different regulatory interventions which boosted local production of key covid-19 commodities such as; gloves, facemasks, and antibiotics which were used for the treatment of secondary infections,” he added
He said that NDA believes that these efforts will strengthen the government of Uganda’s campaign of ‘Buy Uganda, Build Uganda’ that is aimed at fostering the growth of the local industry, improving public confidence in the locally manufactured products, reducing turnaround times for the approval process, ensure resource optimization and efficiency and enhance exportation.
“NDA pledges to continuously innovate mechanisms that are aimed at protecting the public and bolstering economic prosperity for all Ugandans. Safe Drugs,” he said.
