As one Big Pharma eyes a new production presence in Africa, another is partially winding down commercial operations on the continent.
Late last week, Bayer’s Egypt unit unveiled a three-year strategy to crank out 60% to 70% of its over-the-counter consumer drugs there locally, with the further intention to “re-launch five new consumer health-related products by the end of 2025.”
To see the plan through, Bayer will invest 240 Egyptian pounds (about $12.2 million) in domestic manufacturing. It'll partner with another drugmaker in Egypt on a “local manufacturing hub,” the company said in a press release seen by Fierce Pharma.
The German conglomerate says it’s rolling out its Egypt production plan “[u]nder the auspices” of the country’s regulator, the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA).
The plan follows Egypt’s own ambitions for healthcare reform “by having well-known pharmaceutical companies enter into partnerships and joint ventures," Bayer said.
Meanwhile, just a few days later, GSK confirmed via email that it’s shuttering commercial operations in Kenya next year as it pivots to a third-party distribution model for its drugs and vaccines, a spokesperson said.
After weighing its Kenya business to help “meet patient needs and stay competitive,” GSK this week told employees there that it’s moving to a “direct distribution model” and that its local sales operations “will be transferred to third-party distributors,” the GSK spokesperson said in a statement.
The decision “has not been taken lightly" and will result in an undisclosed number of job cuts, GSK said.
Despite the marketing pivot, GSK’s drugs and vaccines are likely to remain a force on the African continent.
Late this summer, for instance, GSK said it had locked up the first supply contract for its malaria shot Mosquirix from the world’s biggest buyer of vaccines, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
UNICEF will pay up to $170 million to access 18 million doses of the GSK shot over the next three years, the agency said in an August release. In 2020, nearly half a million kids died from malaria in Africa alone.