ACCESSIBILITY OF HEALTH PRODUCTS

The Drug Store has continued to improve the availability of health products at health care facilities. The availability of health products has been measured by the health product indicator 290 but due to the strengthening of service delivery systems and the Government's intention to improve the lives of Tanzanians from the financial year 2023/24, the number of indicator products used to measure the availability of health products has increased from 290 products to 382 products.

The availability of health products indicator 382 has increased from 42 percent in 2021/2022 to 67 percent in February, 2024/2025, equivalent to an increase of 23 percent. In fact, the availability of health products has been improving year by year.

FULFILMENT OF HEALTH PRODUCTS

The fulfillment of health care facilities’ needs has continued to improve, with the fulfillment rate reaching 79 percent as of June 2024. However, due to the presence of various ongoing crises around the world, affecting the supply chain and industrial production in the country, which is not keeping pace with the increase in demand for health care facilities, the fulfillment rate has reached 67 percent and is expected to reach 90 percent by June 2025. This increase is due to the strengthening of the strategy of purchasing products directly from manufacturers

SPECIAL PROGRAM FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF “DIALYSIS” BLOOD FILTERING MACHINES.

The government, through the Drug Depot, is implementing a special program to increase access to blood filtration services as part of kidney treatment, thus reducing the cost of the service. Due to the significant investment made by the sixth phase Government, as of February 2025, the number of machines has increased to 137 machines from 60 machines, thus increasing the number of hospitals that received machines from the Drug Depot from 6 hospitals that existed in the financial year 2021/22 to 15 hospitals in 2024/25. This investment has cost an amount of 7.7 billion shillings.

Of these hospitals, 11 hospitals have started providing services and 4 hospitals are in the maintenance stage. Some of the hospitals providing services include the Amana, Mwananyamala, Temeke, Morogoro, Katavi, Tumbi, Chato, Sekoe Toure and UDOM Hospitals.

DISTRIBUTION OF ORAL HEALTH PRODUCTS.

The distribution of oral and dental health products has continued to improve during the sixth phase of the Government where the Drug Depot has continued to ensure that oral and dental health products are available at health service delivery centers. In addition, for the financial year 2024/2025, the Government through the Drug Depot has distributed oral and dental health products worth 9.98 billion shillings from distributing oral and dental health products worth 254.7 million shillings in the year 2021/2022. Over the past four years, oral and dental health products worth 21.5 billion shillings have been distributed, of which 17.87 billion shillings is the value of dental chairs and dental x-ray machines, which is equivalent to 83 percent. Of this cost, dental chairs cost 13.8 billion shillings and enabled the distribution of 647 chairs and 331 modern dental x-ray machines worth 4.07 billion shillings.

DISTRIBUTION OF MOTHER AND CHILD PRODUCTS (CEMONC).

In improving maternal and child health by providing emergency obstetric care and early neonatal care, the Government through the Drug Depot has purchased and distributed health products over the past four years to improve 316 health centers and ensure that they provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care - CEmONC. All 414 health products worth 100,182,390,897.40 shillings have been distributed and installed at these health care facilities in the country.

REVIEW OF THE IT SYSTEM

Overall, the use of IT for the Drug Warehouse has reached 95 percent where a large part of the processes are carried out in the Epicor 10 – ERP system and led to MSD being recognized by the e-Government Authority at Level 4 in 11

IT applications. In addition, the Drug Depot has continued to implement the Government's instructions on IT systems to be interoperable, where the integrated systems include (ELMIS) which is used to receive requirements from health care facilities, HFR-to obtain health care facility registration information, Payment systems (Bank and GePG), DCEA- information on the purchase and distribution of certified health products, Epicor-information on funds provided by donors and payments used, NHIF-to assist in obtaining price information (NHIF kit), TMDA System-to obtain information on registered products and GoTHOMIS-information on product prices, customer requests, customer lists, etc.,

IMPROVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN

The Drug Depot aimed to ensure that access to health products is improved, health products reach the citizens on time and changes occurring at health care facilities are known to MSD and necessary steps are taken to avoid shortages of health products. In addition, the Drug Depot recognized the importance of planning and being able to respond to various disasters when they occur and strengthening systems to ensure that the products received are consistent with those ordered

INDUSTRIAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

MSD has been in efforts to establish its own factories through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) system in accordance with the PPP Act for a long time but we were not successful due to conflicting procedures, conditions and method of project implementation in accordance with PPP laws including the long duration of the project and MSD's lack of ownership in the investment. However, in 2021, the Government amended the Drug Depot Act and officially added the role of Production of Medicines and Medical Devices to MSD. In carrying out this role, MSD made major management reforms by establishing a Subsidiary Company “MSD Medipharm Manufacturing Co.LTD” which manages the factories and production responsibility 100 percent and has the legal authority to enter into cooperation agreements with various investment companies and invest together.

INCREASING THE PURCHASE OF HEALTH PRODUCTS FROM DOMESTIC MANUFACTURERS

The government through the Drug Depot has continued to increase the purchase of health products from local manufacturers where for the period July-December 2024/2025, health products worth 56.7 billion shillings have been purchased from 22.1 billion shillings purchased in 2023/24, an increase of 157 percent. This commitment will help increase production and attract investors where the use of foreign exchange will decrease and jobs will be created in the country.

CONSTRUCTION OF WAREHOUSES FOR STORAGE OF HEALTH PRODUCTS

Recognizing the increase in demand and the trend of investing in alternative energy, the Government through the Drug Depot has begun the construction of new warehouses from August 2023 in the Mtwara and Dodoma Zones to meet the shortage that has arisen. This construction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025 and will cost an amount of 42 billion shillings. The funds used for the construction of the warehouses have been provided by the Government.

CONSTRUCTION OF WAREHOUSES FOR STORAGE OF HEALTH PRODUCTS

Recognizing the increase in demand and the trend of investing in alternative energy, the Government through the Drug Depot has begun the construction of new warehouses from August 2023 in the Mtwara and Dodoma Zones to meet the shortage that has arisen. This construction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025 and will cost an amount of 42 billion shillings. The funds used for the construction of the warehouses have been provided by the Government.