Pharmaceutical Giant GSK To Cease Operations

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Kenya a pharmaceutical company has declared that it will halt operations at its Nairobi Industrial Area plant.

The company, which manufactures Sensodyne, Augmentin, and Panadol, will cease its industrial area plant operations and switch to a distributor-led business model to service the local markets with its products.

“We will continue to supply our needed medicines and vaccines in Kenya, and we will work with our distribution partners towards a smooth transition in 2023,” GSK said.

Ceasing manufacturing in the country will result in the loss of numerous jobs in an economy already struggling with record-high inflation and rising food and fuel prices.

“Yesterday, we informed employees in Kenya that we will move to a direct distribution model and our operations will be transferred to third-party distributors,” GSK said.

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GSK will join a group of international producers that have discontinued local production as a result of rising prices and an unfavourable economic climate, including Reckitt Benckiser,  Dettol, Cadbury, and Colgate-Palmolive.

The decision occurs as the company scrambles to revamp its global business in changes that saw it spin off its consumer health segment, which is home to the Sensodyne and Panadol brands.

Nearly five years after the pharmaceutical giant said it was scaling back operations in Africa in search of more lucrative markets, an assessment of the Kenya operations has been conducted.

In 29 sub-Saharan African markets, it discontinued selling medications to medical professionals, but it kept running local businesses in Kenya and Nigeria and kept representative offices in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

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The company is currently present in six African countries: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, and South Africa. With its HIV/AIDS and malaria medications, as well as other over-the-counter antibiotics and painkillers like Augmentin and Panadol, GSK has had a greater influence in Kenya.

The innovative malaria vaccine, Mosquirix, was developed by the pharmaceutical sector and tested in Kenya last year to reduce mortality, particularly in youngsters.

Its decision comes after poor sales for numerous pharmaceutical firms in the area due to competition from less expensive generic drugs from India and locally produced medications.

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