Rene Industries: Discussing the Impacts of COVID on the Pharmaceutical Industry in Uganda

Khushboo Vadodaria, Operations Director at Rene Industries Limited, talks about the opportunities generated by the COVID pandemic and discusses how it affected the pharmaceutical industry in Uganda, as well as the company.

“Our local demand actually increased over the months. For example, when we were in lockdown in March and April, our sales were double, triple what it usually was because of the local demand. We also had the opportunity to introduce new products such as hand sanitizer, which we have developed according to WHO guidelines, and we had the opportunity to supply a lot of government and non-governmental organizations and institutions in huge quantities which would not have been possible if they were importing the hand sanitizer. We also increased our capacities because of the demand. Because of the knock on effect of March and April, the lockdown period, the demand had increased so much that it forced us to increase our capacities and procure more machinery, do extensions to the factory to accommodate the machinery, and increase our manpower as well. Definitely, we had a lot more opportunity in 2020 being in the essential health sector. Also, because of COVID, they were using a lot of the essential medicines that we manufactured such as vitamin C and zinc sulfate tablets. So, we also saw an increase in the procurement of those particular medicines. Exports throughout the East African region also increased for us, particularly South Sudan and Burundi. We were able to supply government organizations as well which was a big plus for us. We are the largest local supplier in terms of volume and all our supplies were consistent which the end user was very pleased about. Despite the hurdles, we managed to supply everything on time and we continue to do so”, says Khushboo Vadodaria.

“Our business model still remains the same: to produce high quality and cost effective essential medicines for the local and the regional markets. As for a long term strategy, we have developed new products such as alcohol hand sanitizer and we have introduced a few more products in the pipeline to do with cardiovascular health and antimalarials. In terms of a long term strategy, it definitely has put into perspective that we need to focus on building capacity and ensure that there is consistent supply of essential medicines to the government, the local market, as well as to export markets. It has given us a jolt to improve capacities to meet the demands”, she adds.

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