Gnassingbé commends Danadams for quality drugs
President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé of Togo has praised the Danadams Pharmaceutical Industries Limited for producing quality, safe and efficacious drugs for the West African market.
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President Gnassingbé, who visited the company’s premises in Tema yesterday, the second day of his visit to Ghana, said Danadams was a classic example of what African companies could do, given the needed support.
Accompanied by some ministers of state from Togo and Ghana, the Togolese leader, who ends his three-day state today, toured the company, which produces, among others, quality generic anti-retrovirals (ARVs).
Togo is among the countries that have registered drugs produced by the pharmaceutical company. Others are Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cameroon.
Mr Gnassingbé, who could not hide his admiration for the work being done by Danadams, invited the company to set up a production plant in Togo, promising to support it to succeed in that country.
Fake drugs
He expressed concern over the spectacle of young African people selling all manner of drugs in the open, adding, "You don't know whether what they are selling is fake."
He spoke about containers of imported fake drugs that continued to be seized at the entry points and said efforts should be made to prevent unscrupulous people from taking advantage of the sub-region.
Mr Gnassingbé underscored the need for Togo and Ghana to join hands to fight the importation of fake drugs into their respective countries.
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The health of the people, he said, was very important and should, therefore, be protected at all cost.
Strategic positioning
The Chief Executive Officer of Danadams Pharmaceutical Industries, Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, said the company had positioned itself as a valuable manufacturing partner in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
He attributed the success story to a decade of hard work, adding that as the company entered the second decade, it stood by the vision to be part of the solution to Africa’s health crises and a leading catalyst in local manufacturing and regional trade.
Influx of cheap drugs
Dr Gyamfi said it was regrettable that Africa was inundated with cheap and often low quality drugs, adding that about 70 per cent of the pharmaceutical drugs consumed in Africa were imported.
Africa’s disease burden, he said, was great and, therefore, having a vibrant and dedicated local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry was one of the solutions to that problem.
He said the company was poised to step up the challenges of both quality and competitiveness through World Health Organisation (WHO) certification, as well as its upgrade and expansion project.
On the recommendation of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), the ECOWAS Bank of Investment and Development (EBID) had given the company a loan of $9.5 million to finance part of its expansion project, while conclusions were being reached with the Government of Ghana for the balance funding required to complete the project.
Employment
With an initial staff of 20, the company currently employs over 170 people.
“In the past five years, we have grown over 200 per cent in our installed capacity and we are currently producing over 25 million doses per month and using modern automation to accelerate our distribution to the market,” Dr Gyamfi said.
The Board Chairman of the company, Mr Emmanuel Baba Mahama, said Danadams had strategically placed itself as a regional company for all Africans.
He said being aware of the responsibility placed on it to earn the patronage of clients within the continent, the company had taken pains to produce drugs of the highest standards.
He promised that it would continue to be a pacesetter in the manufacturing of drugs at the local level to meet the demands of all Africans.
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