By John Mapepele
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — Tanzania and the United States are seeking to deepen strategic cooperation in the health sector, with Dar es Salaam positioning itself as a regional hub for pharmaceutical production and distribution across Africa.
The initiative was discussed at a Tanzania-US health partnership stakeholders’ meeting held in Washington, D.C., involving the Tanzanian government and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, followed by talks between Tanzanian Health Minister Mohamed Omary Mchengerwa and senior U.S. State Department officials.
Hon. Mchengerwa said Tanzania was prepared to implement fully a recently signed health-sector agreement and use it to attract investment, technology and expertise from the United States.
He said the government was working to create a more competitive environment for pharmaceutical manufacturing by aligning tax and tariff arrangements for pharmaceutical raw materials and packaging with systems used by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community.
The aim, he said, was to make locally manufactured medicines more competitive with finished products imported from abroad.
Tanzania has also been selected to host and lead the Southern African Development Community's Pooled Procurement Services, a regional initiative designed to consolidate demand for medicines and health products among the bloc's 16 member states.
Hon. Mchengerwa said the arrangement could create a significant market opportunity for manufacturers investing in Tanzania.
Instead of producing solely for Tanzania's domestic market of about 60 million people, investors could use the country as a manufacturing and distribution base serving the wider SADC market of more than 300 million people, he added.
Push to expand local drug production
The government is seeking to shift Tanzania from heavy reliance on imported medicines towards greater domestic pharmaceutical production.
Hon. Mchengerwa said attracting pharmaceutical investment required more than promoting investment opportunities and that the government was working to improve the business environment for companies operating in the sector.
The Ministry of Health has established a Pharmaceutical Investment Acceleration Taskforce (PIAT), bringing together key institutions including the Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA), Medical Stores Department (MSD), Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA).
Tanzania is also developing a dedicated pharmaceutical special economic zone at Mloganzila, outside Dar es Salaam, where prepared plots are available for investors. The minister said initial allocation of some plots had already taken place.
The government is further developing plans for a national vaccine and biological-products manufacturing plant as part of efforts to build domestic production capacity.
Hon. Mchengerwa said the country's regulatory system had also strengthened, with TMDA having reached Level 3 of the World Health Organization's maturity framework.
The authority is preparing systems that would allow it to rely, where appropriate, on decisions made by other regulatory authorities, potentially reducing duplication in the approval process for products already cleared by regulators such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Universal health coverage
Hon. Mchengerwa also highlighted Tanzania's expansion and improvement of health facilities as part of efforts to strengthen access to healthcare.
He said the Universal Health Insurance Act, signed in 2023, had established the legal foundation for a nationwide health insurance system.
The government plans to formally launch universal health insurance nationally, with the long-term objective of bringing more than 60 million people into a unified risk-sharing system for healthcare costs, he said.
The health partnership comes as Tanzania seeks to attract greater foreign investment into pharmaceutical manufacturing while strengthening its role in regional health-product supply chains.
For Washington and Dar es Salaam, the cooperation also provides a platform for expanding commercial ties in a sector increasingly viewed as critical to health security and economic development across Africa.