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Home / Local pharmaceutical brand enters domestic market
Local pharmaceutical brand enters domestic market
2017-10-11Staff Report 2 Edgar Brandt Windhoek-At the end of this month, Namibia will enter the global pharmaceutical arena when it launches its very own pharmaceutical brand. Doré Pharmaceuticals (Pty) Ltd, a wholly-owned Namibian company, is scheduled to launch its brand of medicine on October 27, and is expected to provide the domestic market with quality, affordable and reliable pharmaceuticals ranging from metabolics, cardiovascular medicines, antibiotics, muscle relaxants, migraine drugs and respiratory therapeutics. The pharmaceutical company is owned by Dore Investments, the parent company of Commodity Exchange the manufacturer of the Smile Condom brand since 2002. According to the director and owner of Doré Pharmaceuticals, John Maritz, about N$100 million has so far been invested in the pharmaceutical arm of the business since establishing a manufacturing plant in 2014. “Quality control constitutes about 60 percent of our entire operation and it is for this reason that we have 10 highly-skilled individuals directly involved with the quality control aspect,” said Maritz. Maritz’s son, Averouz Maritz, who is the Executive charged with Research and Development as well as New Business Development, is confident that by next year Doré Pharmaceuticals will be pressing own tablets. While again emphasising the quality control aspect of the operation, Averouz stated: “Our aim is to provide quality, affordable medicine to the entire population, regardless of rich or poor, urban or rural, male or female.” He added that although Doré Pharmaceuticals is a recipient of a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate from the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council (NMRC), it is also well on track to receive a European GMP certificate in the near future. Once the company receives this, it will be able to export not only to neighbouring countries in the region but also further afield to Europe and beyond. Maritz noted that the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility was designed on EU GMP and World Health Organisation GMP standards, which is on par with the most advanced pharmaceutical manufacturers across the globe. Doré Pharmaceuticals also prides itself on colour coding its medicine for easy recognition to avoid confusion, and will be the first pharmaceutical brand in the country to print braille on all its packaging. This will enable the visually impaired and those individuals operating in the dark to easily distinguish between the different medicines. For the past 20 years, Doré Pharmaceuticals has been a local regulatory representative of several highly reputable pharmaceutical manufacturers. However, the Windhoek-based company has now established a world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing facility to cater for the private and public sectors. Established in 1997, the company initially specialised in healthcare-related consumables, pharmaceuticals and medical disposable products. 2017-10-11Staff Report 2
