President Museveni calls for UK partnership in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, public health

What the report says

Watchdog Uganda reports that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has urged closer Uganda-United Kingdom cooperation in public health, pharmaceutical production and medical research. Museveni made the appeal during a meeting at State House, Entebbe, with a UK-linked delegation led by Uganda’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Nimisha Madhvani. The group included Hon. Beccy Cooper, a British politician, health consultant and chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group, as well as Ugandan diaspora health professionals based in Britain.

According to the report, Museveni said Uganda’s health approach prioritizes disease prevention, including immunisation, nutrition, safe water, hygiene and behaviour change, while also shifting more attention to non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension. He also pointed to Uganda’s medicinal plant resources and said scientists at the Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute are working to identify active ingredients, but need partners, equipment, infrastructure and patent support to move products toward commercial manufacture.

Museveni invited British pharmaceutical firms to consider Uganda as a base for producing medicines and vaccines for domestic and regional markets. Cooper, speaking for the delegation, reportedly praised Uganda’s public health leadership, including its response to Ebola outbreaks and support for refugees, and said the UK side would explore links with companies interested in vaccine and medicine production.

The report also highlighted diaspora involvement. Moses Bulimira said Ugandan professionals in the UK want to contribute to national development, while State Minister for Primary Health Care Dr. Charles Ayume said nearly 970 Ugandan nursing professionals are working in the United Kingdom, reflecting health-sector ties between the two countries.