ZIMBABWEAN MINISTER CALLS FOR REGIONAL DRUG COMPANIES IN AFRICA

Zimbabwe's deputy health minister, Edwin Muguti, has called for the creation of regional pharmaceutical companies in Africa to end the continent's dependence on Western drugmakers. Muguti claims that developing countries need to meet basic drug requirements through their own drug manufacturing industries, as importing Western drugs is prohibitively expensive. Muguti says developing countries should invest in research for alternatives to commonly used antiretroviral (ARV) treatments-used to combat HIV/AIDS-that are not easily available due to their high cost.

Further, Muguti has attacked Western healthcare systems for poaching health professionals from poor countries. Every year Zimbabwe loses an estimated 60% of its health workforce to the West as doctors and nurses attempt to escape the country's current economic crisis and political instability. However, this is a common trend throughout the region as health workers move abroad in search of perceived better wages and working conditions. South Africa, which has 21,000 native-born health workers employed overseas, is currently in negotiations with Western governments to impose time limits on how long qualified health professionals can work abroad.