Looking for members to join the Uganda Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Initiative!
The Uganda Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Initiative (UPMI) is an ongoing research project started at PISE 5 months ago, under the supervision of TU Delft Impact Studio lead, Gerard van Smeden. As part of UPMI, we have been working on data-driven solutions to recurring shortages of essential medicines in Uganda and, by extension, East Africa. Below is a project brief including some more background information:
One-Pager for Local Pharmaceutical Plant Research in Uganda
As you might know, major budget cuts to institutions such as USAID have recently taken effect under the Trump administration, and are placing additional pressure on an already resource-constrained sector. Much of the pharmaceutical sector of Uganda was operating with help from US funding, and its future is now more uncertain than ever, which makes resilience to external actors a crucial element of ensuring a steady supply of vital medicines in the country (and ideally the whole region).
We’re currently working on analyzing the feasibility of a pharmaceutical plant operating in Uganda. So far, we have:
set up a business presence, with a basic landing page, an email inbox and a business Whatsapp phone number
done preliminary research on the pharmaceutical sector in Uganda and East Africa (tl;dr: a majority of drugs - around 90% - are currently imported from abroad)
created an internal library of resources and indexed our data files and listed potential contacts
discussed our plans with a representative from the National Drug Authority of Uganda (NDA) and a pharmaceutical plant owner in Malawi
begun communications with industrial machinery suppliers and ingredient suppliers in China and India, and received quotes for a selection of products
begun a financial model which takes in market shares of drugs, ingredient prices, production quantities and evaluates the viability of the plant.
But there is still much more to go:
Providing more inputs to our model: data on ingredients, machineries, manufacturing processes, etc… Adding machinery to the model is a particularly important step
Analysis of drug import data of NDA (there is a lot of data, including all recorded imports of medicines into Uganda for the past 3 years).
Outreach to hospitals and medical experts - continue reaching out to medical authorities in the region in order to get a better idea of which drugs are subject to shortages and would benefit most from local production
Impact evaluation - the primary goal of our plan is improving welfare, so a plant would have to be not only economically feasible, but increase wellbeing. This is important to keep in mind!
Talking to investors about funding of the project.
This may seem like a lot, but UPMI is a student project, so there’s no prior expertise requirement to join. The goal of this project is for you to get hands-on experience with impactful research/ entrepeneurship and generally useful skills (professional communication, research, financial modelling, data analysis, etc…) which will hopefully help you in your future impactful career. It’s a also a great way to test whether the area of global health is a fit for you. This project is open to all majors. The group meets weekly in 2 hour meetings, the latter half being together with Gerard, who has vast expertise in the area (he is a co-founder of Unifix Care, among many other things).
Expectations:
You can commit a steady 8 hours every week to this project. This doesn’t include exam periods.
You will follow through with the project until the end of the academic year.
You’re a curious person who’s willing to learn and make the most of this project.
If you’re interested in applying, please fill out this short interest form, after which we’ll have a short interview to make sure that the project is a good fit for you and check long-term enthusiasm about the project (and not test your knowledge). I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the project, in which case you can text me on Whatsapp at +40764902970.
Interest form: https://airtable.com/appjNAd8YnAmA37ki/pagX1IeeaTT86DDTu/form
Deadline: Tuesday, April 1st
