NAPM appoints Dr Skhumbuzo Ngozwana as chairman

With more than a decade's experience in the health services sector and expertise including HIV/AIDS medical management, training and business development, Dr Ngozwana is certain to make a valuable contribution to the organisation.

Dr Ngozwana's medical career started in 1997 working as a medical intern and officer in Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth. He then moved into private practice where he worked as a medical practitioner for three years. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2001 and spent about three years working as a medical advisor at Cipla Medpro. Prior to re-joining Cipla Medpro in January 2008, he was the CEO of lifeworks, a company that manages HIV / AIDS for corporates in a number of African countries. Today he holds the position of joint Deputy CEO at Cipla Medpro along with Dr Pieter Potgieter. Dr Skhumbuzo Ngozwana holds an MBChB from UCT, a Masters in Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Dr Ngozwana has worked with a number of healthcare authorities regionally and within the continent, and is familiar with the work of local and international agencies such as UNAIDS, USAID, PEPFAR, DFID, and the global fund.

Dr Ngozwana succeeds outgoing Chairman Muhammad Bodhania, who held the position for just over 10 years. Sensing that a change was necessary, Mr Bodhania elected to step down and will now hold the position of Vice-Chair.

The vision of the NAPM is to champion affordable healthcare by promoting generics, and the mission is in part to promote the use of generics in South Africa, and to develop and strengthen the generic Pharmaceutical industry. “I plan to devote my energies to advancing the vision and the achievement of our objectives,” says Dr Ngozwana.

The new Chairman says that he will focus on lobbying all important stakeholders, especially the various arms of government in addressing the issues of:

Quality, safety, efficacy, access and cost
The disparagement of generics
The development of a vibrant local pharmaceutical industry
Dr Ngozwana says that he will also focus on growing the generic market share to 40% by value by the end of 2009 and eventually 60% by the year 2012. He also intends to focus on increasing the NAPM's membership as well as strengthening links with other international generic associations.