Joshua Nahamya
09 February 2025
Mbarara – Dr Edward Kazire, the Principal Investigator and a renowned proprietor of Kazire Health Pharmaceuticals has urged investors to register their companies if they are to get government support.
“The challenge with local investors in Uganda, they don’t love formalisation. One wants to be a manufacturer who doesn’t want to own a TIN or register for VAT because he doesn’t want to pay taxes,” he noted
Dr. Kazire made the remarks on Saturday during a media briefing, shortly after President Museveni recognized Busitema University and Kazire Health Products for discovering medicine that cures coronavirus.
While celebrating the 44th Tarehe Sita Anniversary in Kyotera district on February 06, 2025, Museveni said “Our people at Busitema University have discovered a medicine which can cure coronavirus and other viruses. There is also a group called Kazire herbal medicines from Mbarara they discovered something similar, and the people who took these medicines recovered 4 days earlier than those who were using other medicines”.
“All those scientists who discovered medicine, I am going to reward them. I am going to ask my family Janet and Muhoozi to allow me sell part of my cows and I give them a gift,” he said
Kazire appreciated President Museveni for the support for the breakthrough of natural medicine to see that scientists have manufactured medicine that can cure different diseases unlike in the past when the country only relied on imported drugs.
“It is very exciting for us as Kazire Pharmaceuticals Limited because since 1999 when I was at Makerere University we started the search for natural therapeutics because we wanted to prove traditional medicine but the challenging issue was the government policy whereby the people who were practicing natural medicine were being regulated by the witchcraft bill. But when the government came into the recognition of the scientists in the field of natural medicine research in 2019, and the president signed the traditional medicine and complementary medicine bill, it became fundamental to the growth and development of medicine in Uganda and Africa at large,” Kazire explained.
He added that “looking at the global trends of medicine, globally there is already an exponential growth for the need and people wanting to use natural therapeutics”.
Dr. Edward Kazire, Propriator of Kazire Health Products ltd that is doing PHD in Pharmacognosy at MUST.
According to the Principal investigator, Kazire Health Products has so far sunk about Ugx 15bln in research and innovation to discover different drugs to be able to arrest a number of diseases affecting Ugandans.
“We funded the pre-clinical studies and if you look at how much money as Kazire group we have put in research about Ugx 15bln but it is the government which paid for the clinical trial at a cost of about Ugx 6.3bln Shs to the scientists and the researchers at Mulago lung institute,” Kazire said
He challenged the manufacturers to legalize their operations if they were to break the limitations of manufacturing and get support from the government.
“You are a manufacturer of drugs but you don’t want to work with the national drug authority, you only want to operate under the blanket. Now if you keep hiding how will the government support you?” Kazire said
He added “You have accumulated capital of over one billion US dollars that is about Ugx 4 bln but still you refuse to get a registration certificate from Uganda investment authority as an investor why” Kazire asked.
He noted that he has managed to work with all regulatory agencies and bodies to ensure that Kazire Herbal Medicine is a legally running business.
“From the word go, I made sure that all my business was formalized. I am registered with URA, I have a TIN and I am among the medium-scale taxpayers” I worked with the national drug authority and we are the only company with a GMP certificate for the manufacture of natural therapeutics in the whole of Africa,” Kazire said
He encouraged fellow scientists to cooperate and continue studying if they were to remain useful in research and innovation.
“Continuous development must come in terms of knowledge, technology, and science. For you to be able to go through this turbulent time of investment you must read and also open up with other scientists” You cannot keep your small herb under your armpit thinking that you will through, we must open to systems of science, technology if we are to develop and make research that comes up with innovations in as far as health is concerned.” Kazire noted
With the recent ban on humanitarian support to Africa under USAID, Sedrack Atuhaire, Research Manager at Kazire Health Products Limited comforted Ugandans that the manufacturer of natural medicine will address the health emergency.
“I would like to tell Ugandans that our reliance on foreign aid for health systems is coming to an end. In addition, it will serve as a motivation to other innovators that everything is possible,” Atuhaire said
He added that Uganda was awakened in 2019 when people were blocked from going to foreign countries for treatment.
“This is why we are not only working on drugs for respiratory diseases. We have manufactured a drug for ulcers, diabetes, cancer, and malaria which are being tested by NDA” In few years to come you will find that most of these diseases will be managed in Uganda,” Atuhaire noted
He said that “a half of the medicine in hospitals will be manufactured from Uganda meaning that even if America stops giving us drugs, people will not die”.
“This is one of the reasons why the president signed a national parsonage economy bill so that there should be a branch of scientists making medicine to get Uganda from the limitations of begging for medicine from abroad,” Atuhaire said
Value chain
Dr Kazire explained that they are working with over 300,000 farmers in the country to be able to produce enough plant nutrients for commercial production sufficient for both national and international markets.
“At Kazire Health Products we produce about 200,000 bottled products per day. We have established a nuclear farm of 1000 acres in Masindi where we are multiplying most of the plant species that we use in the manufacture of the products” We have also established an irrigation system of Ugx 6bln on that facility to continuously harvest the plants that we want without breaking the season,” Kazire said
He said “On this nuclear plant we are also linking with 310,000 farmers and I am working with the government to use the structures of PDM and operation wealth creation. And I am sure the production of medicinal plants will be the 3rd to coffee and tea production in the country at household level”.
Kazire said that some nuclear plant molecules required will be multiplied from the laboratory.
“I have also done a study at Mbarara University in biotechnology whereby some of the rare plants that we cannot get in big volumes will be produced from the laboratories using bioreactors. Mbarara University has trained enough biotechnologists so we will be able to work with the department of pharmacy to be able to get more pharmaceutical scientists to go deep in the forests we pick small plant cells and have abundant molecules for full production,” Kazire explained.
He added that through the manufacture of natural medicine, Kazire Health Products Ltd will be able to employ over 30,000 people.
“We are going to create about 37,000 direct jobs and we will have about 3700 technical teams at our expanded industrial complex at Nyakisharara where we have 50 acres of land,” Kazire said
“Designs are underway; we are only waiting for the national drug authority to approve our plans for the construction of the large drug production facility to resume,” he added.
Dr. Kazire said that the presidential pledge will be committed to the construction of a cancer laboratory to tackle rampant cancer cases in the western region.
“I think when the presidential support comes, I am going to build a cancer research lab in Mbarara which is going to help us complete our studies on the 7 cancer plants which I am working on and also those cancer drugs will be handed over to the government. In partnership with the national cancer institute it will undergo a clinical trial for us to also export to the global markets,” Kazire noted
“We don’t know when and how much but whatever support he gives us, we shall dedicate it to building a cancer research lab so still it will be a service to the nation.” He added
Market
Kazire said that Vidicine has already gained momentum in health facilities both national and international most especially for school-going children who usually suffer from respiratory complications.
“Vidicine is now a global product because when you pass a clinical trial your product is registered by World Health Organisation as a global medicine”
“Even if this product was only run on a clinical trial for anti-viral infections, the plants that we used to manufacture this product we had used them for the last 25 years in helping patients of asthma especially the school going children who suffer a lot because of immune suppression we saw a positive response,” Kazire said
He added that they have orders in DR Congo, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, and the United Arab Emirates.
“We are directly trading with the government of DR Congo and I am going to have a meeting with the ministry of health of Southern Sudan. They are going to give us a manufacturing order. We are already in advanced stages with Burundi and in Tanzania we already have local orders with pharmacies. Recently I had a discussion with the PS Ministry of health, Diana Atwiine and she confirmed that once we begin mass production, the ministry of health is going to stock this product in all the health centres,” Kazire said
Dr Kazire noted that nobody has manufactured the drug for the flu in the whole world much as the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 resemble those of the flu.
“Globally other researchers have only managed to manufacture vaccines in the line of preventive vaccines but for therapeutics it is Kazire health products and our counterparts in Busitema University that have come out to manufacture a natural therapeutic for Covid19. So we are proud of this breakthrough but also excited for the ranking and position that Uganda is taking in the world of medicine.” He said
