Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Patients are paying exaggerated prices for medicine due to lack of a drugs pricing policy.}

Kenyans are paying as high as 500 per cent more for drugs compared to other countries — meaning that families have to sometimes forgo treatment because they can’t afford it.

A drug such as Eloxatin, used to treat colon and rectal cancer, for instance, is sold at Sh29,500 per 100 milligram vial in US and Turkey and yet in Kenya it goes for Sh67,244.

The drug can prolong a cancer patient’s life significantly.

A patient requires at least four vials, which means that the actual cost is about Sh300,000 excluding other supplementary drugs that go with it.

An antibiotic, Augmentin, manufactured by the UK pharmaceutical GSK, is sold at Sh1,591 for 10 tablets in London and Sh8,600 in Kenya.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has called for the re-introduction of the drug pricing policy that was scrapped in 1994 to cushion poor Kenyans who cannot afford to buy prescription drugs out of pocket.

Chief Pharmacist Kipkerich Koskei told the Nation that the high cost of drugs caused by a liberalised market burdens Kenyans and puts the country at risk of proliferation of fake medicine.

LACK OF PRICING POLICY

Since Kenya lacks a pricing policy, patients end up paying more than they should for some of the drugs they require as part of their treatment.

Official data shows that for the same product manufactured by multinationals for both rich and poor countries, there is a difference of up to about 1,000 per cent for the medicines sold in Kenya.

“What is the need to have overpriced drugs if the people in need cannot afford even a tablet?” asked Dr Koskei.

“Company agents are taking advantage of the free market… A drug pricing policy is a matter of importance that should be considered so that we can cushion the people who cannot afford,” he said.

Dr Koskei said that these price differences affect how some drugs are perceived and asked multinationals to keep in mind the cost transferred to patients.

“Prices should be the same in dollars for all countries… I think it is unfair that within the East African Community (EAC) one country (Kenya) is over charged 1 there must be some form of price control,” he said, adding that countries such as Uganda have subsidised prices.

He said most of the managing directors of multinationals in East African region are based in Nairobi, which is perceived as an expensive city and therefore appointed dealers were forced to raise prices as dictated by manufacturers to cater for the expenditure on the officials.

“All these directors are being housed in Nairobi and I believe they transfer that cost to the medicines. They say everything in Kenya is expensive including water and electricity but I would not know beyond that,” said Dr Koskei.

A price control policy was in place in Kenya up to 1993 during the Moi era, said Dr Koskei, adding that part of the prescription by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) then was to remove price controls in Kenya for everything not just medicine.

India and Pakistan have put cost labels on medicine packs to control the prices. Anyone one caught charging patients beyond the prescribed prices faces a jail term.

The high prices have pushed Kenyans to do parallel importations by buying drugs of high value but low volume and which are sometimes not certified by the board, said Dr Koskei.

Health Cabinet Secretary, Cleopa Mailu said inflated pricing was unacceptable but added that it would be difficult to make changes in a liberalised economy.

He said the introduction of patent rights had made it difficult for developing countries to reproduce generic medicines, especially for chronic ailments such as cancer.

“We would wish to bring down the cost of drugs though it is difficult in a free market. What we will be relooking is the maximum retail price which should be printed on all products so that the public is not exploited,” said Dr Mailu.

The ministry would analyse and publicise the cost of production, importation and recommended prices to protect Kenyans from greedy dealers.

Dr Mailu said Kenya was negotiating for developing country tariffs with the World Trade Organisation.

“We are also seeking rebates for drug importers to reduce costs so the prices for end consumers can be low,” he said.

The vice chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee, Robert Pukose, said they did not make any provision for a drug pricing policy in the Health Bill that is awaiting approval.

But he said the Senate can still introduce a provision for the policy.

He said there were no price caps on medicine globally and that retailers are encouraged to add about 33 per cent to the cost of the drugs to cater for logistics incurred hence pushing up prices .

“For now the government needs to pump in more money into procurement of drugs and subsidise prices for poor Kenyans. The unfortunate thing is reduced stocks and increased demand which forces some distributors to raise prices,” said Dr Pukose.

Drugs for killer diseases such as malaria, Aids and TB are currently being given out free in the country.

Kenya only produces drugs for common ailments such as headaches and hypertension due to lack of special skills and raw materials, 80 per cent of which are imported from China and India.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report dubbed “Medicine Prices in Kenya” states that a third of the global population lacks reliable access to medicines, due to high prices.

The report shows that the burden is especially great for families that need treatment for several conditions at the same time.

“For innovator brands, patient prices were found to range from 17.75 times to 140.07 times the international reference price. The prices are highest in Nairobi than other regions,” said the report, which recommended an examination of the components that make up the price of medicines as a first step in determining how to reduce them.

The report recommends that Kenya should develop and implement a medicine pricing policy to achieve a greater level of transparency.

{A teacher at the school impregnated a Standard Four pupil.}

The headteacher of a school in Laikipia North was on Monday chased away by parents for piling pressure on the authorities to take action against a teacher who impregnated a pupil.

Members of the public and parents at Ewaso Primary School accused Ms Anne Resiano of having poor relations with the community and demanded her immediate removal.

This was after she rejected demands by elders and politicians to resolve out of court the case in which the teacher is accused of impregnating a Standard Four pupil.

“Pack her things and go away with her as she does not have good public relations with the local community,” they told an education officer, Mr Patrick Ndung’u, who had gone to listen to their grievances.

In July last year, the pupil informed the guidance and counselling teacher, Ms Rosemary Kaparo, that the teacher had impregnated her and Ms Resiano reported to the matter to the police and education officers.

County Teachers Service Commission director Abukar Hassan visited the school four times last December to investigate the matter.

Although the 16-year-old girl has already given birth, the suspect has not been apprehended and has been seeking the help of the community elders and politicians to solve the matter out of court.

“They are unhappy with me because I refused to play by their rules and yet I also come from this area,” Ms Resiano said.

The TSC headquarters in Nairobi is aware of the case, Mr Hassan revealed.

“I sent three different teams to the school before I went there personally to investigate,” said Mr Hassan. “We have done a report and handed it over to the head office.”

{The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) sitting here has debated and hailed the Chairperson of the East African Community Summit of Heads of State, Dr John Magufuli, for the concise exposition of the EAC policy contained in the State of the EAC Address delivered to the regional assembly at its March session.}

Ms Shy-Rose Bhanji (Tanzania) termed the speech as enlightening and said it had laid ground on a number of important matters in the integration agenda. The Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, delivered the State of EAC Address on behalf of the President of Tanzania and Chair of the Summit of EAC Heads of State, President Magufuli, at the commencement of theMeeting of the 4th Session of the 3rd Assembly on March 8 in Dar es Salaam. In the speech, Mr Majaliwa gave a score-card on a number of areas related to the pillars of integration.

The speech highlighted the adoption of the use of One-Stop Business Posts (OSBPs) as a trade facilitation concept to minimise delays at the border posts and on the major corridors in the region.

The House was informed that out of the 15 borders earmarked to operate as OSBPs, seven had been completed and four others were operating as OSBPs using bilateral agreements.

Mr Abubakar Zein from Kenya reiterated that it was necessary for the region to contain corruption and remove bad governance in order to realise progress of the EAC, while Mr Mike Sebalu of Uganda termed disasters as a matter that the region must collectively address.

Ms Mumbi Ngaru termed sensitisation as fundamental, adding that there was need for more adequate funding, a sentiment that was echoed by Mr Bernard Mulengani and Mr Frederic Ngenzebuhoro as well.

On her part, Ms Judith Pareno said that East Africans continued to face a number of challenges at the borders citing frequent stop points by the authorities while Ms Dora Byamukama called for closer working relations between the Private Sector under the East African Business Council and the Assembly. The prime minister remarked that intra-EAC Trade was expected to register phenomenal increase in the next few years. On Infrastructure, it was stated that Partner States were actively engaged in the Standard Gauge Railway, with Kenya having completed coverage of about 200 km out of 472 kms of formation as of September, last year.

On the Common Market, the EAC Chair of Summit gave an account of achievements realised in the Partner States to date. He remarked that Burundi now recognises the academic qualifications, experiences obtained, licences and certifications obtained for the workers from other EAC Partner States.

Tanzania on its part has issued a total of 3,222 simplified Certificates of Origin were issued as at June 2015 as compared to 2,355 certificates issued in 2014. In Kenya, the prime minister said development of an SMS based NTBs Reporting System to facilitate reporting and subsequent elimination of NTBs had been initiated.

The Republic of Rwanda, according to the Chair of the Summit, had eliminated all Non-Tariff Barriers and further harmonised demographic and social statistics for undertaking agricultural surveys and census.

He added that all the initiatives were geared towards enhancing the Common Market Protocol. In Uganda, the value of goods from other Partner States accorded zero-tariff treatment grew by 9 per cent while 360 EAC standards on traded goods had been adopted and were in application.

{Shot by elephant poachers, the manager of Congo’s Garamba National Park asked a ranger for help to bind his leg with a tourniquet to slow blood loss.}

“While we were doing this, I could hear another person get hit on our right, and then within a few seconds, also hear another person get hit on my left,” Erik Mararv said in an interview with The Associated Press in Johannesburg, where he received medical treatment.

Three rangers — half of a unit that deployed to the scene of an elephant killing — were killed in the April 23 shootout in Garamba, where armed groups poach elephants for ivory in one of Africa’s most volatile areas.

It was not an isolated incident. A total of 11 Garamba rangers and Congolese soldiers have been killed during anti-poaching missions in the past year, highlighting how conservationists in some parts of the continent become combatants and, on occasion, casualties.

The poachers who attacked the rangers in Garamba, a UNESCO world heritage site, last month are believed to have come from South Sudan, just across the border. Other groups that have operated in Garamba include ivory hunters and militias from Sudan, and the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group led by Joseph Kony, who is accused of war crimes. The park has also reported incidents in which poachers killed elephants from helicopters.

“We have lost a lot. We are not winning the battle today, but we can win the battle, absolutely,” said Mararv, 30, who plans to return to Garamba at the end of the week after getting approval from doctors to fly. Mararv, on crutches, said the bullet that hit his right leg “cut my femur bone cleanly” before tumbling out of his thigh, leaving a “fist-sized hole.”

“I was very, very lucky,” said Mararv, who expects a full recovery. A Swede born in the Central African Republic, he described the rangers who died – Dimba Richard, Anigobe Bagare and Matikuli Tsago – as “some of our best people.”

African Parks, the Johannesburg-based group that manages Garamba and nine other wildlife parks in Africa, wants to increase the number of Garamba rangers from 100 to 250; additionally, some 50 to 100 Congolese soldiers are already deployed to guard the park. African Parks is also considering the acquisition of a “bigger air carrier” more suited to military-style operations than a helicopter that carries fewer people, and wants to increase cooperation with U.N. and American forces operating against armed groups in the area, Mararv said.

Garamba’s elephant population has plummeted over the years to an estimated 1,300, and tourism is minimal. Security concerns overshadow funding for schools, health centers and other development initiatives that Mararv said are critical to the park’s turnaround but are seen as “not that sexy to talk about.”

Violence also erupts in some other African parks.

Zimbabwean rangers confronted 10 suspected elephant poachers from Zambia who had crossed into Zimbabwe’s Zambezi National Park at night, and two poachers were killed, Bhejane Trust, a conservation group, said on Facebook last weekend.

In January, elephant poachers in Tanzania fired on a helicopter on an anti-poaching mission, killing the British pilot. In March, rebels in Congo’s Virunga National Park killed two rangers, according to park director Emmanuel de Merode.

De Merode, who was seriously injured by gunmen in 2014, has been in touch with Mararv, a friend, since the Swede was shot. De Merode has been “very encouraging,” Mararv said.

Garamba rangers inspecting the area after the April fight found the backpack of a ranger killed last year and the South Sudanese poachers are believed to have also suffered casualties, Mararv said. The group had killed an elephant but didn’t have time to remove its tusks.

Mararv concluded: “People who die on the ground, they die because of this trade.”