Despite Abundance Of Medicinal Plants, Cameroon Is Still Far Behind In The Production Of Medicines

In the year 2010, billions of francs CFA was invested to set up a pharmaceutical company. Cinpharm, in Douala, which crumbled a few years later, because Gov’t failed to protect it.

Despite the fact that Cameroon’s forests are rich in medical plants, the country is still far behind in the production of modern and quality medicines, and so depends almost entirely on imported medicines.  The Minister of Public Health, Dr Manoauda Malachie, said at 74^th session of the Regional Committee  of the World Health Organization, WHO, which held in  Brazzaville, Congo Republic  last week, that local pharmaceutical companies in the country produce barely 5 – 10 % of the needs of the country or population. And if we consider that the minister even likely raised  the percentage as is typical of the Cameroon Government in public declarations, it is thus very likely that local production of medicines and other pharmaceutical products is less that 5%.

Yet Cameroon is one of the few countries blessed with large forests that are very rich in medical plants. Thus the bulk of the raw materials for the production of modern medicines are there. Yet Cameroon depends on imported drugs. Pharmaceutical companies in Europe and other continents get raw materials for medicines from our forests almost for nothing, they go and produced medicines, and sell to us. Just as they get our cocoa beans, and send back to us chocolates.

Each and every year, Cameroon spends billions and billions of francs CFA to import medicines, including even ‘paracetamol’ for headache. A bulk of the medications that are imported can be produced back at home. If that were to be done, it would be good for the country’s economy, it will create or provide jobs, it will guarantee easy access to quality medicines and so on. The importance of an easy access to quality medication by the population of a country cannot be overemphasized. There is the adage that health is wealth.

 The Case Of Cinpharm

On April 8, 2010 in Douala, a pharmaceutical company, Cinpharm, was launched in Douala by a Cameroonian businessman, Celestin Tawamba (the current President of GECAM, former GICAM) and his Indian partners, to produced high quality drugs. This reporter was present at both the launching ceremony on April 8, 2010, and at a press conference that held a day before at Akwa Palace Hotel.  A number of members of Government travelled to Douala to attend the inauguration ceremony, , and very beautiful speeches were made, pointing to Cinpharm, as the beginning of a new era in Cameroon.

Cinpharm was in fact a very important project for Cameroon. Several billions of francs CFA was pumped into the project. The Cameroonian partner, Celestin Tawamba, for example pumped 3 billion francs CFA into Cinpharm, a bulk of the money being a big loan he got from Commercial Bank Cameroun, CBC.

Cinpharm Crashed

But less than three years after its heavily attended launched, Cinpharm crumbled.  The Cameroonian partner, Celestin Tawamba, cried out that the Government failed to protect the young pharmaceutical company. Cinpharm was producing good quality drugs as was promised. The Indian partners had much experience in the domain. It should be noted that India is one of the countries in the world reputed for the production of quality drugs.  The problem that knocked out Cinpharm from the Cameroon market, was the complaint that the prices of the medicines produced by the company, were higher than the prices of imported drugs in pharmacies. So the tendency was that many people who went to pharmacies to buy the type of medications  that Cinpharm was  producing, finally  opted for the imported ones because the prices were comparatively lower.

But Cinpharm complaint that if it sold its products at the same prices like most of the imported medications, it would be selling at a loss or at a deficit. Cinpharm needed sometime to grow. If Cinpahrm had been accompanied by Government, with time the company would have grown and increased its production capacity, and the cost of production would normally have reduced, and so the prices of its products too would have reduced as well.

It was the place of Government to protect the strategically important and young pharmaceutical company, Cinpharm, by either reducing the quantify of imported drugs, or giving the company a subsidy for a few years to  keep its cost of production and thus its prices low, in the highly competitive market. Drugs officially imported from Europe, United States and other countries can easily be controlled by Government. Pharmacies generally are not the ones that import the medications. There are very few establishments that the Government has authorized to import medicines, and that distribute the drugs to pharmacists.

But the Government had at the April 8, 2010 ceremony in Douala to inaugurate the pharmaceutical company, Cinpharm, promised to accompany it. But it was not to be the case, as the Government abandoned the young pharmaceutical company to itself, to face competition from the products of giant pharmaceutical companies in Europe and elsewhere. Cinpharm thus ended up shutting down, and the billions of francs that were invested in the project, buried.  What happened to Cinpharm definitely remains a big discouragement to big investments in the pharmaceutical sector in Cameroon. It will be difficult for another Cameroonian businessman to again go to India,, which is a country reputed in the production of medications, and successfully convince other Indian investors to put in a big sum of money into a project in Cameroon.

Pharmaceutical Companies Are Strategic Companies

Pharmaceutical companies are strategic companies in different countries, even if the Government of Cameroon and those of some other African countries seemed not to care much. Governments take measures to protect their big pharmaceutical companies, considering their strategic importance. African countries like Cameroon, are supposed to have learnt a lesson from what happened when the COVID – 19 pandemic breakout in the year 2020. The British Government with Boris Johnson then as Prime Minister, ordered the giant pharmaceutical company in Britain, Asrazeneca, to prioritize the British population in the distribution of the COVID vaccine it produced. Of course it was the responsibility of the British Government to see that the British population had access to the COVID vaccine as fast as possible.

It was the same thing with the giant Pfizer pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer in Germany and Johnson and Johnson in the United States that also produced COVID vaccines. Pfizer had to prioritized Germany and other member States of the European Union, while the US Government ordered Johnson and Johnson to prioritize the US population. Of course the governments at that critical time had also assisted their big pharmaceutical companies to enable carryout wide and fast research.  African countries had no choice but to plead and wait to receive these vaccines later.   At one point the issue turned political, with the African Union accusing the West of being unfair in the way COVID vaccines were being distributed. It was however not the fault of the West that 60 years after independence, most African countries like Cameroon still have to depend largely on the West and Asia for medications, including medications for headache.

Talking about the COVID -19, it was China with its pharmaceutical company, SINOPHARM, that came to the rescue of friendly African countries like Cameroon, with the SINOPHARM vaccine. Even if the West raised serious doubts about the quality of the SINOPHARM vaccine from China, just like the Spoutnik vaccine from Russia, African countries like Cameroon had no choice. It would be recalled that Cameroon received the first COVID vaccine in the evening of April 11. 2020, and it was 200, 0000 doses of the Chinese vaccine, for a population of over 25 million. In fact it was God that saved African countries like Cameroon. If COVID -19 hit Cameroon with the same force that it did in many countries in Europe for example, the population of this country would have simply been wipeout.