The government now seeks to control the amount of imports of pharmaceuticals into the country.
The Ministry of Health has noted that the country spends to a tune of Sh550 billion annually on importing pharmaceutical products.
This is despite some local manufacturers being prequalified by the World Health Organisation for manufacturing quality products.
"As a country, we import most of our products, more than 90 per cent of health products that are used in this country are imported yet on the other hand we can have the products manufactured here," Health CS Susan Nakhumicha said.
The CS was speaking during the official opening of the four-day 14th Kemri Annual Scientific and Health Conference on Tuesday.
Nakhumicha was concerned that the country still imports simple products such as paracetamol tablets yet they can be manufactured locally.
"Like water for injection why would for heaven's sake as a country be importing water for injections, those are things that can be done here locally," the CS said.
The CS said importation of products has seen the country lose on so many levels, including the products taking time to be brought into the country.
Nakhumicha said during the Covid-19 pandemic, the country faced a lot of challenges accessing essential medical supplies especially vaccines since Kenya just like other African countries was placed on the tail end of delivery schedules.
The delay in receiving the vaccines led to more deaths during the peak of the virus since the countries that had the vaccines gave priority to their citizens.
"We do not know when the next pandemic is going to happen and we cannot wait for a pandemic but we want to ensure that we manufacture locally to take care of our citizens," she said.
The ministry has since directed the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to source products manufactured in the country from local producers.
Only what is not manufactured locally will be sourced from other countries even as the ministry moves to demystify the common thinking and perception that locally manufactured products are of poor quality.
As a leading biomedical research institution, Kemri has consistently been at the forefront of advancing disease diagnosis, treatment and management.
Kemri Acting Director General Elijah Songok said the institution's unwavering commitment to product development, innovative technologies, rigorous clinical trials, and service provision, has made a substantial impact on enhancing healthcare outcomes.
"Our partnership with the ministry, local manufacturers, diverse health research institutions and the private sector aims to establish an ecosystem that fosters scientific and economic growth in Health Products and Technologies (HPT)," Songok said.
He noted that the initiative, which leverages Kemri’s expertise, aims to instil confidence in locally manufactured HPT and generate solutions that revamp the local manufacturing landscape.
The theme for the KASH conference this year is, 'Harnessing biomedical research innovations and big data for health System resilience, local manufacturing and commercialisation'.
