Health defence system in Africa

Abdelmonem Fawzi

Pandemics and disease have created significant breakdowns as well as breakthroughs in how our medical system operates.

The reason is that we have been battered for decades by the burden of several diseases and pandemics, such as Covid 19.

We still have a very limited capacity to produce our own medicines and vaccines.

Africa imports more than 70 per cent of all the medicines it needs, which gulps $14 billion per year.

Global efforts to rapidly expand the manufacturing of essential pharmaceutical products, including vaccines in developing countries, particularly in Africa, to ensure greater access, have been hampered by intellectual property rights protection and patents on technologies, know-how, manufacturing processes and trade secrets.

African pharmaceutical companies do not have the negotiation capacity, or bandwidth to engage with global pharmaceutical companies.

These companies have been marginalised and left behind in complex global pharmaceutical innovations.

Recently, 35 companies signed a license with American multinational pharmaceutical company Merck to produce Nirmatrelvir, a Covid-19 drug. None of these companies was African.

No institution exists on the ground in Africa to support the practical implementation of Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) on the non-exclusive or exclusive licensing of proprietary technologies, know-how and processes.

The good news is that the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB ) has approved the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, a new groundbreaking institution that will significantly enhance Africa’s access to the technologies that underpin the manufacture of medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products.

The AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, described this as a ‘great development’ for Africa.

“Africa must have a health defence system, which must include three major areas: revamping Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, building Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity, and building the continent’s quality healthcare infrastructure,” Adesina said.

During the African Union Summit this year, the continent’s leaders called on the AfDB to facilitate the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.

Adesina, who presented the case for the institution to the African Union, added that Africa can no longer outsource the healthcare security of its 1.3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others.

With this bold initiative, the AfDB has made good on that commitment.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will fill this important and glaring gap.

When fully established, it will be staffed by world-class experts on pharmaceutical innovation and development, intellectual property rights, and health policy; acting as a transparent intermediator that advances and brokers the interests of the African pharmaceutical sector with global and other southern pharmaceutical companies to share IP-protected technologies, know-how and patented processes.

Adesina said even with the decision of the TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), millions are dying and would most likely continue to die from the lack of vaccines and effective protection.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation provides a practical solution and will help tilt access to proprietary technologies, knowledge, know-how and processes in favour of Africa.

The WTO and the World Health Organisation (WHO), respectively, welcomed and lauded the AfDB’s decision.

Director-General of the WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, described the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation as ‘innovative thinking and action’ by the AfDB.

“It provides part of the infrastructure needed to assure an emergent pharmaceutical industry in Africa,” she said.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will prioritise technologies, products and processes focused primarily on diseases that are widely prevalent in Africa, including current and future pandemics.

It will also build human and professional skills, the research and development ecosystem, and support the upgrade of manufacturing plant capacities and regulatory quality to meet the WHO’s standards.

While the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation is being established under the auspices of the AfDB, it will operate independently and raise funds from various stakeholders, including governments, development finance institutions, and philanthropic organisations, among others.

The foundation will boost the AfDB’s commitment to spend at least $3 billion over the next 10 years to support the pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing sector under its Vision 2030 Pharmaceutical Action Plan.

The Foundation’s areas of work will also be an asset to all other current investments into pharmaceutical production in Africa.

Rwanda will host the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.

A common benefits entity, the Foundation will have its own governance and operational structures. It will promote and broker alliances between foreign and African pharmaceutical companies.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will encourage local pharmaceutical companies to engage in local production initiatives with systematic technology learning and technology upgrading at the plant level.

The foundation will work with African governments and research and development centres of excellence to strengthen the regional pharmaceutical and vaccine innovation ecosystem for Africa and build skills of the type needed for the pharmaceutical sector to flourish.

It will also promote closer coordination among the various ongoing medicines and vaccines’ manufacturing initiatives at the regional level to increase collaborative linkages, leverage synergies and partnerships in a pan-African context.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will work closely with the AUC, EU, WHO, MPP, WTO, philanthropic organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies and institutions, and will foster collaboration between the public and private sectors in developing and developed countries.

The decision is a major boost to the health prospects of a continent that aims to deliver our goal and implement our Vision 2030 Pharmaceutical Action Plan.