Table 4 Participants’ opinion regarding the challenges related to R&D faced by pharmaceutical plants in Ethiopia

Challenges not specific to R&D

“The problem we had in the last 4… 5 years led us to be unable to produce the products in our portfolio… the obvious reason is foreign currency shortage… so… if you have 30 products may be 5 or 10 are ‘hot cake’ products… so… investing the available forex on those products will be more feasible… due to that, I don't know how many people are ready to want to develop formulations through R&D” [Participant 06 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“… As our productivity is very low… we focus on increasing productivity. You need money for R&D… you have to hire staff… arrange for facilities and equipment… so… I think that is the challenge… because we are struggling to maintain our production capacity, it is difficult to go to R&D” [Participant 10 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“…if you are running on 70… 80% of capacity no problem… you can think about the future…. but if you are running on around 15% capacity… then… naturally… it will be a little difficult for the organization…” [Participant 10 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

Cost of R&D and absence of resource pooling

“I told you the cost of R&D is high… my company engages in R&D because we think of the long term…. Now we have around 100 products from 20 originally… […]… it takes time… very much… to get one [product] out you need two years for development studies and registration… and they [the industries] don't want it… because they are business companies” [Participant 12 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“…rather than in-house formulation development… we are at a point where it is easier to buy from abroad… in-house development is costly… so the situation pushes you to buy even the formulations from abroad…” [Participant 07 from pharmaceutical manufacturers]

“…it is sad… what is done somewhere is duplicated… the duplication… snatching of human resources … if one good expert… a foreign trained expert is in Gondar… and another one is in Jimma… another in Wollo… they cannot do much… what I suggest is to bring them to one institute… that is how they can be stimulated to do research…” [Participant 08 from research/educational institute]

“we know our universities… a masters or PhD student… to do research… he will have to go… can he really work at the university… you know… he spends his time going from one institute to another to find equipment…” [Participant 05 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

Difficult procurement processes for R&D input

“… our big challenge is… first… because we buy input materials in small quantities… it is difficult to get them… for example if the amount you need for development is 10 kg… what you find in the market is products packed in 50 kg…100 kg weight… one product may require 10 excipients and you will face the same problem for all… in addition the suppliers do not value small quantity purchases… and some even try to put it as a precondition for working with them in the future” [Participant 12 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“I have also received funding… I also know others have too… but the procurement mechanism to avail input necessary for research is a problem… especially for those that should be purchased from abroad… it is a big obstacle…” [Participant 08 from research/education institute]

Weak governmental and managerial support

“Top-level managers consider R&D as a luxury… R&D is a big source of growth… seeing the global experience…. Multinationals invest a lot on R&D… so if you think of growth… change…. R&D is vital… I think there is a gap in knowledge… most companies do not give attention to R&D…” [Participant 05 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“…there is no support from the government… NGOs…to help professionals get better exposure on R&D… and the companies are not interested to fund such activities…” [Participant 12 from pharmaceutical manufacturer]

“the concerned institute to strengthen R&D in pharmaceutical manufacturing companies does not provide enough support for example in the areas of human resource capacity building… this is because the institute itself did not build its capacity… quite to the contrary… its employees sometimes learn R&D from the pharmaceutical companies…” [Participant 03 from government agency]