By TEE NGUGI

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One of Bangladesh’s largest drugmakers, Square Pharmaceuticals, will start producing medicines at its multibillion production facility in Kenya in the next four months, targeting unmet demand in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and South Sudan.

The pharmaceutical firm started the construction of a plant in 2018 at the tax-friendly export processing zones (EPZ) in Athi River with an initial investment of Ksh2.58 billion ($25 million) and now says it is ready to begin commercial production after the completion of the factory.

“We will hopefully be able to start manufacturing at the plant by July or August,” Tapan Chowdhury, managing director of Square Pharmaceuticals, was quoted saying this week by local Bangladeshi media.

Trial production at the new facility is expected to begin on July 31. Among the drugs lined for production are drugs for diabetes, malaria, cardiovascular diseases and anti-psychotic diseases.

“The drugs that we intend to manufacture are branded generics that are on the World Health Organization pre-qualified drugs list that the organisation has listed for treating priority diseases,” said Mr Chowdhury in 2018 during the groundbreaking.

In Bangladesh, the firm produces 637 pharmaceuticals exported to over 43 countries.

The Kenya plant is expected to minimise the country’s dependency on pharmaceutical imports and reduce the cost of drugs. Kenya imports medicines worth $600 million annually, according to official statistics.

Apart from lowering the cost of drugs, it is expected to increase access to genuine drugs given the challenge of counterfeits.