by Rudo Saungweme     

CAPS Pharmaceutical is set to re-open a plant that manufactures drips in June this year, a development that will lessen burden on  Government`s largely owned Nat Pharm Pharmaceutical of importing drugs.

CAPS had stopped production in 2010 because of low demand from Government which was their major customer. Government was now importing drips from South Africa and Brazil at a total cost of US $6 million per year.

CAPS is said to have incurred a total cost amounting to US $3 million towards acquiring machinery from Italy to manufacture drips. The plant has a capacity to meet the national requirement for drips and also for exports.

A source within the pharmaceutical company revealed that Nat Pharm had already pledged to buy drips from CAPS.  He said CAPS had also secured a market for the drips in Zambia, Botswana and Malawi.

In 2019, CAPS re-opened its Penicillin plant which contributed to a 50 percent increase in capsules during the first quarter of 2020 but was negatively affected by low demand from the local market. Its major customers were private hospitals and Pharmacies.

The source said that CAPS was appealing to Government for support through buying their drugs for public hospitals. At the moment, Nat Pharm imports the bulk of its drugs.

Meanwhile, CAPS is in the process of making raw materials needed in drug production such as starch and glucose. The raw materials are currently being imported from China, India, and South Africa at an average cost of US $4 million.

Government is doing all it can to re-open industries. In 2017, Government injected US $3.3 million towards the resuscitation of the CAPS Pharmaceutical after shutting down for four years.

Government is also set to re-capitalise the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) through partnering with PT Inker, an Indonesian company which will supply NRZ with wagons and locomotives.