Sanbao Pharmaceuticals commends FDA

Sanbao Pharmaceuticals Limited has commended the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) for the measures it has put in place to ensure product safety and improve the pharmaceuticals industry in Ghana.

Mr Smart Atta Bediako, the Superintendent Pharmacist at Sanbao (Gh) limited, one of the only two producers of intravenous infusions in Ghana, said the stringent interventions of the FDA had contributed to the growth of the industry and also boosted public interest in locally manufactured pharmaceutical products.

He made the statement when a delegation from the Chinese Embassy visited the Company’s new facility at the Garment Village within the Tema Free Zones Enclave, as part of a media tour to highlight Chinese investments in Ghana.

Mr Bediako, said the old facility at the Kpong new industrial area was not enough to meet its needs as it only had an installed capacity of two million units of infusions per year.

He said the new facility, however, has an installed production capacity of 15 million bags of infusions per annum.

Mr Bediako said the plant, which covers an area of 13.75 acres, had been designed in accordance with the World Health Organisation’s current Good Manufacturing Practices, adding that, it also used advanced technologies in ensuring that its products were of the highest quality.

“The new infusion plant, due to the critical nature of our products, also introduces advanced automated Blow-Fill-Seal technology in the production of the infusions and this offers significant advantages by reducing human-product contact to the barest minimum,” he said.

He said Sanbao had also changed the primary packaging material of their infusions from Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) to polypropylene, which is non-PVC and has better physico-chemical properties than PVC.

This, Mr Bediako said, made Sanbao the only infusions manufacturing company that uses a non-PVC primary packaging and encouraged health institutions in the country to patronize its products.

He said the company was working towards increasing its current production target and exporting some of its products to other countries to attain a free zone status in Ghana.

Mr Richard Chen, the General Manager of Sanbao, a subsidiary of the China State Corporation, said the company was committed to ensuring access for quality healthcare products for Ghanaians.

He said the company would also produce other forms of medications, including tablets, syrups and capsules to meet the needs of Ghanaians.

He said a major challenge faced by the company was the high costs of its production due to the weakening of the cedi and the inability of its clients to pay for the infusions on time.

Mr Chen said because its products were life-critical productions needed to save lives, it had to deliver promptly when asked to, but added that, the clients; both public and private health facilities delay payments for the infusions by about six months up to one year, which affects its operations.

He attributed the cause of these delays to the National Health Insurance system and called on health facilities to ensure prompt payments of the products.