The key messages in this policy brief are as follows: -Pharmaceutical production has been a Tanzanian industrial success, generating industrial skills and employment and sustaining access to essential medicines for the Tanzanian population, especially in rural areas. -Tanzania now risks accelerated loss of this key industrial sector, under interacting pressures from external competition, requirements to upgrade technology, unsupportive procurement and tax frameworks, and problems of probity and management oversight. -Loss of the local pharmaceutical industry threatens security and flexibility in supply of essential medicines, contributes to industrial decline, and adds to the trade deficit.-Policies to reverse decline exist; they require “joined up” government action on tax and trade policies, procurement policies, and targeted business support, plus active government collaboration with manufacturers.
