38 companies ready to invest in medical industries - Minister

Thirty eight companies are ready to invest in the construction and running of pharmaceutical and medical related areas.

This was revealed on Wednesday by the Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ummy Mwalimu in Dar es salaam after she hosted a meeting with investors expressing interest in building pharmaceutical and hospital equipments.

Minister Ummy revealed that the anticipated industries will motivate the government to purchase medicines and medical equipment locally and hence, lead to more job creation and economic development as more that one trillion shillings is annually spent on health related expenses of which less than 10 per cent is spent on local industries.

Charles Mwijage, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment who co-hosted the event told investors that the fifth phase government is making sure to remove all trade barriers and fast track health industry investment.

Mwijage also insisted that there must be close relationship between the anticipated health industries and academic institutions as well as researchers so as to promote knowledge and innovation through continuous research.

On his side, acting Managing Director General for Tanzania Foods and Drugs Authority (TFDA), Adam Fimbo said that his authority has the duty to make sure all standards are complied with in order to have safe products for human use.

"Medicine can be poison, useless or fail to cure related diseases. It is the authority (TFDA)'s duty to supervise standards," said Adam.