Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited

Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited (CQCIL) is a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Uganda. According to a 2007 published report, it was the only company in Africa that manufactured triple-combination antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.^[1] CQCIL also manufactures the antimalarial drug Lumartem, which contains artemisinin and lumefantrine,^[2] and the Hepatitis B generic medicines Texavir and Zentair.^[3][4]

Location

CQCIL's pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is located in Luzira, a neighborhood in Nakawa Division in south-eastern Kampala. The plant is approximately 9 kilometres (6 mi), by road, south-east of Kampala's central business district.^[5] The coordinates of the plant are 0°18'17.0"N, 32°38'22.0"E (Latitude:0.304723; Longitude:32.639436).^[6]

History

In 2004, Quality Chemicals Limited (QCL) convinced Indian drug maker Cipla to enter into a joint venture with QCL and the government of Uganda to establish a pharmaceutical plant in Uganda. Ground was broken in 2005, and the factory was commissioned in 2007,^[7] with a capacity of 6 million pills daily.^[8]

In 2009, TLG Capital, a London-based private equity company,^[9] invested an undisclosed amount of money in the plant.^[10] Later, CapitalWorks Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in South Africa, also became a shareholder in the plant.^[11] In February 2010, the government of Uganda divested from the plant by selling its shares "at cost" to CQCIL. The transaction was valued at US$5 million.^[12]

In February 2011, the owners of the plant announced a US$40 million expansion of the production line to include increased production of ARVs and antimalarial medication. In April 2012, British media reported that CQCIL was in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity fourfold. The plant had received approval of its processes and products from the World Health Organization. The products were expected to be initially marketed in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.^[12]

According to a 2012 published report, CQCIL was planning to build a second plant next to the first plant, which would raise CQCIL's manufacturing capacity to 18 million pills daily.^[13]

As of April 2016, the company's products were marketed in Cameroon, Comoros, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.^[14]

Ownership of pharmaceutical plant

As of April 2017, the shareholding in the pharmaceutical plant was as depicted in the table below:^[15] In 2017, the company began to implement plans to list some of its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange.^[16] After the listing, it is expected that the shareholding in the company stock will be as reflected in the table below.^{[15][17][18][19]}

• Cipla also owns 51 percent of QCL.^[23]
• Until May 2015, QCL owned 22.05 percent of CQCIL.^[23] Sometime after that, QCL sold its entire shareholding; 10.8 percent to three of the individual founders and the remaining 11.25 percent to Cipla European Union, thus raising Cipla's shareholding to the pre-IPO level of 62.3 percent.^[24]

Governance

The executive chairman of the board of directors of CQCIL is Emmanuel Katongole, who was formerly the managing director of CQCIL. He replaced Francis Kitaka, the first person in eastern Africa to train as a biochemist,^[25][26] The managing director of CQCIL is Nevin Bradford.^[27]

References

External links

• QCIL To Manufacture Special ARVs
• Museveni Opens AIDS Drugs Factory
• Cipla buys 51% in Uganda drugs firm - Sunday, 23 August 2015
• Frontier Private Equity Firms Turn Sights On Africa

Coordinates: 00°18′17″N 32°38′22″E / 0.30472°N 32.63944°E / 0.30472; 32.63944