Efforts to develop the pharmaceutical industry in Botswana continue to gain momentum, Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BoMRA) and Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA) signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) marking the beginning of a historic partnership between the two important Authorities.
The two Authorities recognise the importance of creating favorable conditions for pharmaceutical sector investors willing to set up businesses and manufacturing plants in Botswana. Pharma manufacturing is an area of interest to the Government of Botswana, and it is considered to have huge potential for job creation and skills development for Batswana.
The Executives of the two entities underlined the importance of strengthening the relations between the two regulatory authorities to deliver on their mandate and achieve positive economic outcomes transformation for Botswana.
For his part, SEZA CEO Mr. Lonely Mogara indicated that the partnership offers investors a comprehensive and simple environment to do business free of bureaucracy and red tape, with incentives that are designed to make the returns on their investment even more attractive to Batswana. He further said that SEZA has demarcated 8 Special Economic zones based on the concentration of natural resources, environment, strategic co-location, and key economic factors. When asked about the pharmaceutical sector zones, the CEO confirmed to his counterpart that there is a special area zoned for the Pharma sector within Gaborone.
In his remarks, BoMRA Acting CEO Dr. Seima Dijeng highlighted that the agreement will ensure accountability for the safety and efficacy of products which is shared among four stakeholder groups, practitioners who administer the products, companies that produce them, the authorities responsible for evaluating safety and efficacy, and additional bodies like SEZA will evaluate benefit or risk in specific populations, thus putting an ordinary Motswana first.
The goal of this agreement is to create a win-win situation, wherein the public and private sectors partner in such a way that they create value for society and shareholders, said Dr Dijeng. Medicine regulation in Botswana continues to evolve and the existence of the BoMRA and SEZA provides an opportunity for the country to appropriately consolidate medicine and related substances regulation to ensure the operationalization of a uniform functional regulatory system for human, veterinary medicines, and related substances are in place, and that the citizenry has access to quality health care services.
