Kemsa drugs plan gives cancer, diabetes patients hope

Patients suffering from cancer, diabetes and kidney failure are set for a reprieve as a government drugs supplier plans distributing the costly medicines at a fairer price next year.

The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) is looking to start selling the drugs once it completes the setting up of a specialised unit to handle the supplies.

The subsidiary will also handle the buying and selling of drugs to cater for rare diseases like Kala Azar as well as treat snake bites and jigger attacks.

Medicines to tackle diseases like cancer cost hundreds of thousands of shillings every month in the open market and the authority expects its non-profit model to help cut the cost.

“The specialised unit will cater for specialised needs and services like the areas of renal dialysis by providing renal solutions and taking care of orphan (rare) diseases,” said chief executive John Munyu.

“It may not be commercially very exciting in terms that we are going to make big money but our purpose is not to make money.”

Currently, Kemsa procures and sells drugs for essential diseases that are usually used in hospitals on a day-to-day basis.

READ: Swiss firm Novartis to launch heart, cancer drugs in Kenya

Pharmaceutical Association of Kenya chairman Paul Mwaniki told the Business Daily that anti-cancer drugs’ cost depends on the type of cancer and the stage of the disease ranging between Sh100,000 and Sh300,000 a month.

“A good number of these drugs are still under patent by the manufacturers and so are very expensive. For a few, the patent period may have lapsed but you find that they are not commonly used maybe because they have side effects,” he said.

Kemsa expects to spend an initial capital of about Sh300 million to get the unit running by January next year.

“At the moment, the ministry is still determining what the treatment protocol for each type of cancer is. Once that is determined and we know this is what we are going to buy, the World Bank has pledged to give us the support,” said Dr Munyu.

For the rare diseases, Kemsa will inject the initial capital into the project.

The provision of such drugs is likely to ease costs for patients who have been left on their own as some county hospitals said they did not have enough funds to cater for them.

In March, the Nyeri Referral Hospital told cancer patients seeking chemotherapy treatment to buy their own drugs for treatment saying the medicines were too expensive and the hospital could not afford to buy them.

Cancer — the third leading and the fastest rising killer disease in Kenya — claimed 14,175 lives last year.

Official statistics show the number of those who died from malaria, pneumonia and HIV/Aids has dropped since 2010, but cancer has shown a steady rise.

A huge number of those diagnosed continue to die from the disease as the cost of the chemotherapy medicines is beyond their reach and they have no insurance.

Kemsa operates as a commercial, not-for-profit entity which sees it sell drugs to hospitals at the price it bought them plus a small premium for the logistics.