Pharmaceutical: Cameroon lagging behind Senegal, Tunisia, and Morocco

According to the mid-term evaluation report of the National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (SND30), local production only covers 5% of the formal drug consumption by the end of 2025, through only eight industrial units.

Compared to its African neighbors, the country remains significantly behind. For example, Senegal covers between 10% and 15% of its consumption with four production units, Ivory Coast 8% with five units. The gap widens even further compared to Tunisia, where 28 factories cover 45% of the market, and Morocco, where 40 units cover 65% of the national demand.

A competitiveness deficit that fuels dependence on imports

According to the National Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (CNSE), “this delay is not only due to the low number of factories.” The report points out “the high cost of several production factors, including energy, customs duties, and transportation, which directly penalize the competitiveness of local manufacturers against imports.”

This industrial fragility has a direct consequence on public procurement. “Only 3.6% of public purchases of pharmaceutical products come from Cameroonian manufacturers, compared to an African average of 11.7%, 25.3% in India, and 59.4% in the European Union,” the report states. Out of the 473 references on the national list of essential medicines, local production only covered 12.7% of the needs in 2012, the latest available data on this specific indicator.

The report also mentions a worrying phenomenon for health regulation: “40% of the value of pharmaceutical imports would come from fraudulent channels, a figure that illustrates the weaknesses of the national control system in the sector.”

A sector that accounts for less than 0.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP)

Macroeconomic aggregates confirm this stagnation. The contribution of chemical and pharmaceutical industries to the GDP remained almost stable, decreasing from 0.5% in 2020 to 0.48% in 2023. At the same time, chemical imports reached 532 billion CFA francs (approximately 931 million USD) in 2023, an increase of 8.9% compared to the previous year, with pharmaceutical products alone representing 31% of this total.

In light of this assessment, the government is banking on the National Development Strategy for the local pharmaceutical industry (SNDIPHAL 2025-2030). It aims to increase the share of national production from 5% to 25% of consumption by 2030, while reducing fraudulent imports from 40% to 10%. The text includes exemptions for pharmaceutical inputs and a limitation on imports competing with local production.

Investments have already been made, with the expansion of the Cameroonian Industrial Pharmaceutical Company (CINPHARM) and the development of Africure Pharmaceuticals, supported by Indian and South African partners. However, achieving the stated ambition will require a significant effort. With a market share of 5% in 2025, the Cameroonian pharmaceutical industry will need to quintuple its contribution in five years to hope to achieve the set goal. This is a challenge that the CNSE directly links to the success of the future deployment of Universal Health Coverage.