GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the latest multinational corporation to leave Kenya due to low-budget sales and global restructuring of the company.
GSK will join a group of international producers that includes Reckitt Benckiser the company that makes Dettol, Cadbury, and Colgate- Palmolive, Which has halted local production due to rising prices and an unfavourable economic climate.
The company, which manufactures Sensodyne, Augmentin, and Panadol, will close its Nairobi plant and instead, use a distributor-led model to supply regional markets with its products.
GSK’s departure occurs as the company scrambles to revamp its global business in changes that included the division of its consumer health sector, with their Sensodyne and Panadol brands leading the frontline.
At the end of the previous year, GSK rejected an offer from Unilever for the division because it undervalued the company.
The review in Kenya just comes five years after the company stopped marketing medicines to healthcare professionals in 29 sub-Haran African markets but continued operations in Kenya and Nigeria while retaining representative offices in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Closure of the company operations will see to it that most of the company employees will lose their jobs as the company is shifting to work with their distribution partners in Kenya to give a good transition in 2023.
Its exit comes after many pharmaceutical companies in the region had disappointing sales due to competition from cheaper generics from India and locally manufactured medicines.
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Manufacturing grew by 6.6% last year, compared to 10.1 per cent in 2020, according to the Economic Survey 2022.
