AFRICA – The African Union’s (AU) Special Representative on the African Medicines Agency (AMA) Dr. Michel Sidibe has called for the launch of “the first replenishment for an African-based health institution” to secure money for AMA’s future.
The AU AMA Special Representative emphasized that Africa’s most powerful countries need to ratify the AMA Treaty to ensure its credibility while noting that civil society organisations can lobby them to do so.
He further stressed that it is important to have countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other countries on the continent ratifying the treaty.
“It is important to continue for the credibility of the AMA to drive the ratification agenda, and it is very important to not lose momentum,” he told a webinar organized by the African Medicines Agency Treaty Alliance (AMATA), a civil society network that supports AMA’s formation.
According to the African Union, AU Member States need to ratify the AMA Treaty and enable the operational implementation of the continental regulatory system that will benefit patients, regulators, and healthcare systems across the continent.
“In February 2019, the AU adopted a treaty to establish the agency but it took until November of that year before the bare minimum of 15-member state had ratified the treaty, enabling the AU to move ahead to set it up,” Sidibe noted.
The aim of Africa’s new medicine agency is to harmonize the regulatory system for medical products across the continent’s 55 nations to enable faster approval processes and to support local pharmaceutical production.
“We don’t have another way to do it except making sure that we maintain and sustain our advocacy as we mobilize political leaders,” Sidibe said while commending AMATA for its advocacy work in support of AMA.
While commenting on the AU’s decision for Rwanda to host AMA headquarters, he said that he was confident the process of operationalizing the agency would move fast in the hands of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.
the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also met Kagame on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 77) in New York to offer WHO’s support for AMA.
Sidibe outlined crucial processes to ensure that the agency is fully functional involving ensuring its ratification by all countries, particularly Africa’s largest and wealthiest countries.
He further emphasized on the need to Articulate the AMA strategy and plan widely to ensure it has the support of the continent.
He said that it was crucial to develop a funding strategy and roadmap for fundraising as well as to build the skeleton of the African Medicines Agency including identifying its major functions and leaders.
He urged relevant stakeholders to build AMA partnerships and coalitions as well as to identify and deliver three to five major impacts for AMA in order to establish its credibility.
Sidibe highlighted that the ratification process has highlighted the importance of critical stakeholders especially regulators, researchers, academic institutions, private industry and passionate civil society organisations.
“AMA should not be just replacing national regulatory authorities or regional harmonization processes. I think it will be a huge mistake and it will not work,” he stressed.
He further said that the AMA will just come in to complement the already established regulatory authorities, noting that a strong AMA will depend on strong national capacities.
In addition, Sidibe appealed to academics and civil society to help strengthen ethics committees and the implementation capacity of weaker countries.
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