Joshua Nahamya
23 June, 2025
Kampala – Dr Edward Kazaire, the Principal Investigator and a renowned proprietor of Kazire Health Products Limited has appealed to the government to support scientists manufacturing natural therapeutics (herbal medical products) meant to tackle the disease burden in Uganda.
During National Science Week at Kololo Independence Grounds, Dr Kazaire was recognized for his contribution towards the development and standardization of herbal medicine and pharmaceuticals.
Kazaire, who manufactured Vidicine to treat Covid in 2019, is currently manufacturing other herbal drugs to treat the existing cancer diseases in Uganda.
“We have not only stopped manufacturing Covid19 vaccine, currently I am at Mbarara University of Science and technology working on herbal medicine to treat cancer. So far I have manufactured three drugs which have reached at the stage of not only being herbal medicine but a drug that can treat prostate cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer,” he explained.
Dr. Kazaire explained that he started the campaign of manufacturing cancer drugs after realizing the increased number of cancer patients at the Uganda Cancer Institute.
Dr Edward Kazaire, Director Kazire Health Products Ltd. Joshua Nahamya
“We went to Uganda cancer institute and discovered what cancer patients do suffer most and in the next three years from now, the cancer medicine will have been approved because we have already asked for government support. We are going to construct a laboratory which will be working on innovation of cancer drugs and transforming it to be sold in pharmacies and hospitals,” he noted
Kazaire said that historically, Ugandans perceived herbal medical products as witchcraft which he said should be treated like any other medicine.
“Many chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment globally are of herbal origin yet in Uganda, herbal medicine was for many years considered to be witchcraft which is not. As a person who had studied for my first degree in chemistry, I focused on natural therapeutics so that herbal medicine can be allowed in hospitals by Ugandan authorities” adding that, Vidicine is the first to pass the clinical test which will be approved by the National Drug Authority to be put included in the government hospitals,” he said
Kazaire added “I started in 1999 making research so that our herbal medicine can be considered like any other medicine other than being looked at as witchcraft. Herbal medicine is not witchcraft; it can be standardized, tested, and turned into effective treatment. This means that what was taken to be witchcraft, is now seen as a journey to freedom and economic reliance of Uganda due to the pathogen economy”.
He highlighted that scientists have transformed the country’s health system using herbal medicine like Alvera among others thus emphasizing the need to invest in the untapped potential of Uganda’s plant resources.
“Look at alvera which was once a herb seen in the bushes in Western Uganda, today is a commercial plant because we have established the protocol that can be used to extract aloe emodin which is a known active compound that we are using in one of our formulations for its bioactivities”
Kazire Health Products Ltd is also working on natural herbal medicines that will treat animal diseases such as Swine fever, and foot and mouth disease among others.
“We are also manufacturing animal disease drugs like Kazivate with the national drug authority testing it before getting to the market. We are also manufacturing swine fever drug that will give hope to piggery farmers and national drug authority is also testing its efficacy before allowing farmers to start using it,” he stated
Dr Kazaire called on the government to support the establishment of a cancer cell line laboratory, to boost cancer research using local herbal medicine.
“So far, we’ve created three promising formulations. What we need now is government support to establish a cancer cell line lab to determine which plants are effective against which cancer types,” he appealed.
The proposed facility would focus on identifying indigenous plants with the potential to treat various forms of cancer, a disease that affects an estimated 33,000 Ugandans each year.
Kazaire also called on fellow scientists to join the cause, arguing that Uganda’s biodiversity offers a goldmine for drug discovery. He noted that a significant number of Ugandans still rely on herbal remedies including those discharged from Mulago National Referral Hospital and other hospitals.
A reward to Dr Edward Kazaire.
He urged the government and scientific community to invest more in local pharmaceutical research, noting that Uganda has the scientific and botanical capacity to develop homegrown solutions to one of its most pressing health crises.
“Statistics show that 60% of Ugandans seek herbal alternatives, whether or not they’ve been treated in conventional hospitals” adding that, if scientists don’t step up to standardize these remedies, the public risks exposure to unsafe or ineffective products,” Kazaire noted
Despite the high number of new cases annually, only a small fraction of patients are able to access treatment at the Uganda Cancer Institute. Currently, cervical cancer remains the most prevalent type, accounting for approximately 6,959 new cases and 4,607 deaths annually.
