AFRICA – The African Development Bank Group has introduced a new initiative to boost Africa’s capacity to produce drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics all along the value chain.
The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF), in partnership with the African Union, will help build Africa’s pharmaceutical sector.
APTF was the focus of a forum hosted by the African Development Bank under the theme: “Technology Access for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.”
The event was part of the 2nd International Conference on Public Health in Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, on 14 December.
According to the African Development Bank, the continent imports more than 70% of the medicines it needs at the cost of US$14 billion annually.
Changing the game to enable African countries develop their capacity to manufacture pharmaceutical products has public health, strategic and economic rationales.
“This new initiative comes as a solution, since most [African] countries still face challenges in receiving [medicines] on time,” Dr. Yvan Butera, Rwandan Minister of State for Health, commented.
The Foundation, hosted by the Government of Rwanda in Kigali, is expected to commence operations in early 2023.
The Foundation, approved by the African Development Bank’s Board of Directors in June 2022, is expected to boost Africa’s access to technology for manufacturing the full range of pharmaceutical products, focusing on building supply chains and expanding access to building block technologies of various kinds.
The Foundation will also serve as a transparent intermediator advancing and brokering the interests of the African pharmaceutical sector on the global stage, to enhance access to proprietary technologies, know-how, and related industrial processes, through licensing and other market-based and non-market mechanisms.
The WHO, the Coalition on Epidemic Preparedness, the South Centre, Geneva, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany have expressed keen interest in working with the Foundation in the coming year.
Panelists stressed the need to establish partnerships between African pharmaceutical companies and their counterparts in other continents, such as Europe.
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