GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana is seeking assistance from the European Union to develop its healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors further as the EU’s Health and Pharma Investment Mission concludes a three-day visit later on Wednesday.
The mission formed part of the EU’s flagship Global Gateway initiative, designed to foster sustainable investment and deepen ties with strategic partners worldwide.
Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony stated that Guyana is progressing with the revamping of its pharmaceutical regulatory system, with assistance from Rwanda, as part of preparations to become a leading drug manufacturer and supplier to Caribbean and European Union (EU) markets.
“We have assessed our regulatory agency and our laws; when we looked at them- they date back to 1974, which is pretty old, and we have worked with our partners, including the Pan American Health Organization, and we have a draft new law for the pharmaceutical industry.”
He informed the European Union’s Global Gateway Investment Mission that, in addition to the law, there would be seven annexes covering matters such as pharmacovigilance aimed at bringing Guyana up to the level of global best practice.
Anthony said a review of the operations of the Food and Drug Administration had revealed several “gaps,” including the need for a “good laboratory.”
He said the Guyana government has invested $5 million in a Food and Drug Lab located at the University of Guyana, which is expected to be completed within another year.
“Once that is completed, then we would have a good home where we can do all the regulatory testing, and it would meet the best practices internationally,” he said.
Anthony said that Rwanda has shared its human resource structure with the regulatory authority and that another Rwandan expert is due to arrive in a couple of months.
“Once that person comes and works with us, we are committed to hiring the relevant experience to make sure that our regulatory authority functions as it should,” he said.
With support from the EU and Rwanda, Barbados and Guyana are continuing preparatory work to begin the manufacture of drugs, including vaccines.
“During COVID, I think we all over the world realized that it became super difficult to buy medicine, to buy anything that is of relevance in the health sector and that you need, as a region, to be able to rely on your production facilities,” the Health Minister said, noting that the EU had supported Rwanda to do so.
Lithuania, Guyana, and Barbados have already signed a joint declaration to strengthen the systems in the two Caribbean countries. Health ministers have already discussed the idea at the level of the Caribbean Community’s Council for Human and Social Development.
Anthony said Guyana already has “some experience” through the decades-old New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation, which had also produced HIV anti-retroviral vaccines.
The EU Ambassador wooed European pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of the duty-free, quota-free exports from Guyana under the EU-Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement.
Anthony praised Rwanda for improving its regulatory authority to “almost the highest level” for pharmaceuticals being manufactured there. He stated that, as a result, Rwanda had attracted several European companies to establish a manufacturing base there.
“While their physical plant might be in Rwanda, it is also distributing these meds, devices, and other things that they are making there to the rest of Africa. That’s a huge market that they would have access to,” he said.
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