AFRICA – The African Medicines Agency Treaty Alliance (AMATA) has praised the landmark agreement signed in Zambia during the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union for Rwanda to host the permanent headquarters and secretariat of the African Medicines Agency (AMA).

The founding members of the AMATA have called upon the African Union (AU) to ensure that the multi-stakeholder alliance has an unanimously ratified Treaty Instrument particularly all 54 Member States must ratify and deposit to make Africa “one AMA Pan-African Medicines Regulatory Family”.

The founding member further encouraged the AU to reach out to international development agencies, partners and the international banks to establish a sustainable funding model and implemented to ensure short- and long-term stability of the African Medicines Agency.

According to AMATA, the African Medicines Agency is a timely measure for pandemic preparedness to co-ordinate and support State Parties and Regional Economic Communities (REC) to quickly assess and license life-saving vaccines in a coherent and consistent manner amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AMATA is a multi-stakeholder alliance set up to advocate for the ratification and implementation of the African Medicines Agency Treaty and for meaningful engagement with patients and other relevant parties specifically in all aspects of the Agency framework.

AMATA welcomes the African Medicines Agency as a measure for pandemic preparedness too. We all know that finding a building is different from making it a home. Let us build this new AMA family home together.

African Medicines Agency Treaty Alliance

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The founding members of the AMATA representing African patients, academia, civil society and industry have lauded Rwanda for landing the major deal to host the headquarters of AMA that is intended to facilitate the harmonization of regulatory requirements in African pharmaceutical markets.

The founding members have called upon the remaining family of African Union Member States who have yet to ratify and deposit their AMA Treaty instruments to do so urgently to further build on the current momentum gained with the major milestone.

The founding members announced that the historic decision should bring relevant stakeholders together to establish the AMA that will enhance the capacity of REC to regulate medical products with an aim to improve Africa’s access to safe and efficacious medicines, medical products and technologies.

AMATA founding members urged the AU to ensure that sufficient finances and budgets are established promptly for the new Agency as well as ensure that the AMA Governing Board is quickly recruited, appointed and mandated to ensure that the AMA is equipped with adequate human resource capacity.

The AMA Board must set up a framework of engagement with non-state actors and to draw upon all available expertise from African academia, research bodies, industry and private sector and community and patient groups to provide technical guidance on specific areas,” AMATA founding members stressed.

The AMATA members emphasized that the African Medicines Agency Governing Board should be mandated to recognize patients as key partners in the management structures and development of the Agency and its National Security Agency (NSA) engagement frameworks.

Like the Patient and Consumer Working Party (PCWP) at the European Medicines Agency and the Patient Engagement Collaborative (PEC) at FDA USA, a Pan-African Patients Working Party needs to be set up,” the founding members of the African Medicines Agency Treaty Alliance added.

In addition, the AMATA members have encouraged the African Union to continue building up and strengthening robust national regulatory infrastructures in all African Union Member States Regional Economic Communities.

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