WaMuriithi/Essential-Medicines-Kenya

Investigating essential medicines that are not manufactured locally. Selenium, Python, and Power Query used to extract medicine lists # Essential-Medicines-Kenya Investigating essential medicines that are not manufactured locally Candidate Products for local Phamaceutical Manufacturing One point of convergence between the two leading coalitions in the 2022 election was the need to increase local manufacturing of medicines and medical devices. This resolve can only have been strengthened with the recent rapprochement of the groups and the still acute need to roll out universal health coverage, the sustainability of which rests on managing healthcare costs, with 20-60% of healthcare costs in developing countries attributed to medicines (Cameron et al., 2009). Increasing self-sufficiency in pharmaceuticals and medical devices offers other advantages, including creating quality jobs, import substitution, export promotion, and health security, particularly with the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic when source markets blocked the export of essential drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients, such as paracetamol. While the government has a raft of incentives for local and foreign investors to set up in Kenya, uptake has been slow, chiefly blamed on ineffective policy and regulatory environments, skills gaps in research and development, and operational challenges in electricity and water supply (International Finance Corporation, 2020). An overlooked driver is the lack of quality data on medicines, devices, and commodity needs, an anachronistic situation judging from the considerable investments in computerizations of processes at the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), Kenya Trade Network Agency, and other public and private players in trade and healthcare. I report on exploratory analysis of publicly available data to advise on immediate-release oral dosage forms that new or established investors can consider manufacturing locally. Datasets and Data Cleaning I extracted the list of registered products from the PPB website using Selenium and Python and the essential medicines list from the Kenya …