Kenya seeks to benefit from Roche’s Legal Diagnostics Expansion Presence

Nairobi, Friday April 28, 2023

K.N.A By Phinta Amondi

Roche Diagnostics Company, the world’s largest biotechnology in vitro diagnostics has announced its plan of expanding diagnostics presence in Kenya.

Announcing the Company’s 10-year Africa Strategy at a Nairobi hotel, Roche Diagnostics Africa Executive Vice President Allan Pamba, said Kenya is a critical market for the company to create an environment built on strong relationships and accelerate the country’s health agenda towards access to reliable diagnostics.

“Diagnostics foundations form a robust public health system although in most African countries like Kenya, accessibility stands in the way making diagnostics allocation in health budgets proportionately lower than treatment interventions,” said Pamba.

He disclosed that out of 1.4 billion people, 300million have been able to access their services with a presence in over 40 countries and estimation of over 1000 employees including Kenya among 12 countries.

He noted that the 10-year Strategy for Africa will focus on driving investments and strategic partnerships across the health care ecosystem by working directly with the government and local agencies to improve and save lives within the health sector in support of Universal Health Care (UHC) Agenda.

It will also offer deeper data insights from clinical practice in order to transform healthcare and provide the best care for everyone through partnerships with various stakeholders.

“If more people took control of their health, care providers would feel confident making decisions for their patients and they would manage the growing burden of non-communicable and communicable diseases cost effectively,” stressed the Executive Vice President.

Pamba expressed confidence that with the strategy in place there will be a rise in supply from the current 300 million to 500 million people in Africa in the three key pillars of building foundation, shaping the external environment and innovative business models.

He said that the building foundation pillar especially investments in the supply chain service would help in growing people's talents, content and ensure functionality of equipment from abroad.

Additionally, Pamba observed that health universal coverage contributes at least two to three percent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product compared to the treatment coverage.

He noted that shaping the external environs by setting realistic commitments, conversations and education for patients would make it easier in the health care system, adding that aligning with the innovative business models would facilitate accurate data analysis in the process and offer quality services to its patients.

Speaking at the event, Roche Diagnostics International President Europe ,Middle East Africa and Latin America Bernard Colombo revealed investments in Africa citing Kenya where it has  built on existing programmes like the Global Access Programme which delivers 60 percent of Human Immuno Deficiency Virus load testing across Sub- Saharan Africa.

Colombo added that in vitro diagnostics consists of vital components of health products and technologies which contribute to the highest attainable standards of health for all Kenyans as envisioned in Kenya’s vision 2030.

“The launch of our 10 year diagnostics strategy for Africa and Kenya’s growth marks a great milestone and signals our long term commitment to Africa;  this is a vital step in our journey to delivering quality diagnostics to every African,” Colombo stated.

Courtesy K.N.A