This archive report was first published on 12 October 2019.
Kenya Bureau of Standards has suspended pre-export inspection on medicines for 90 days, a move that will allow importers to bring in medicines without extra inspections.
The suspension, announced by managing director Bernard Njiraini, is not a blanket waiver but applies only to medicines and not all pharmaceutical products.
Mr Njiraini said the suspension was made after consultation with stakeholders from the industry, who had raised logistical issues with the Pre-export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme.
“Yes, we have given them a waiver for three months as we iron out the logistical issues that the importers raised about the PVoC programme,” he told Nation on phone.
The waiver comes weeks after pharmaceutical distributors complained about new regulations that require pre-export inspection and a PVoC certificate for all goods coming to Kenya.
Pharmaceutical firms had threatened to increase the cost of medicines by 40 to 60 percent if the President failed to rescind the directive on the new rules.
Mr Njiraini said there were no pharmaceutical products held at any port, and the suspension will allow importers to get medicines into the country as fast as they are needed.
Chairman of the Kenya Pharmaceutical Distributors Association (KPDA) Kamamia Murichu welcomed the decision, saying it was a positive move that will enable the industry to get medicines into the country quickly.
However, the industry's end goal is to ensure that the government entirely withdraws the PVoC regulation for medical consumables.
From today, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) will require medicines coming into the country to be tested before they are imported, with a pre-inspection costing USD $265 (Sh27,000).
Pharmaceutical firms have said that if the President failed to rescind the directive on the new rules, they would increase the cost of medicines by 40 to 60 percent to shoulder the new charges of inspection imposed on them.
