Abstract:

Background: Pharmaceutical production began in Tanzania between 1960-1980 with four firms. The 1980s economic crisis closed down two of them, in 2018, there were more than twelve registered pharmaceutical plants in Tanzania. Among the registered plants, only five were categorized as TMDA GMP compliant pharmaceutical plants. But only seven pharmaceutical industries among the major firms are active. It is therefore imperative that challenges facing local manufacturers must be identified and addressed.

Problem statement: Tanzania local manufacturing of pharmaceutical inadequate to meet national demand because most of pharmaceutical manufacturing industries have collapsed. In this case 80% of medicine, 90% of medical supplies and 100% Laboratory supplies are imported whereas MSD is largest importer.

Methodology study area: Study was done in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, the study included the following pharmaceutical industries; Shely’s Pharmaceutical Ltd, Mansoor Daya Chemicals Ltd, Zenufa Laboratory Ltd and Keko Pharmaceutical Ltd, from Mwanza; Prince Pharmaceutical Ltd.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study with qualitative inquiry

Results: The challenges identified by Tanzania manufactures were comparable to be findings of studies conducted in other developing countries. The biggest challenges was lack of accessory industries and from this led to other challenges like unfair competition with imported products, price, and unavailability of raw materials was among the challenges that manufacturers perceived as hindering increased capacity. In addition, in contrast to other studies requirement to adhere to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations was not perceived to be a challenge that hindered increased production of essential medicine but rather an obligation for them to remain competitive and all manufacturing industries are shown to comply with GMP requirements.

Conclusion: To attain adequate production of pharmaceutical medicines there must be collaborative effort between local manufacturers, Government and the society who are primary consumers of the pharmaceutical medicine. The government must put supportive environments for investors in production of pharmaceutical industries including linking between ministry of Education, Agriculture, Ministry of Power and Industries and Trade and pharmaceutical manufactures.