African Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, on Monday, May 22, called for more partners for the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF), a revolutionary initiative that will increase the continent's ability to manufacture medicines, vaccines and other pharmaceutical products.
He was speaking during a high-level event on the APTF that convened stakeholders in the private and public sector on Monday, May 22, on the margins of the African Development Bank Group’s 58th Annual Meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town.
The APTF is a ‘first-of-its-kind’ agency in the African region dedicated to systematically promoting a transformation of the overall technology environment in which African companies operate. The Foundation, approved by the AfDB’s Board of Directors in June 2022, is expected to boost Africa’s access to technology for manufacturing the full range of pharmaceutical products. It will help the continent build its pharmaceutical sector.
Rwanda will host the headquarters of the APTF.
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During Monday’s event, participants engaged in discussions regarding the Foundation&039;s areas of work and its significance as a strategically important agency within Africa's emerging institutional architecture for pharmaceutical production and innovation.
The Pan-African agency set up by the AfDB comes as a dedicated institution to address the long-standing technology gaps in the region’s pharmaceutical sector, as requested by African Union member states. It will promote technology access and transfer, facilitate technological upgrading of relevance to the pharmaceutical sector for Africa, and put in place several dedicated programs that will focus on enhancing technology absorption in Africa’s private and public sectors.
According to AfDB data, Africa imports more than 70 per cent of the medications it needs at a cost of up to $14 billion annually, while it only manufactures one per cent of the needed vaccines. The APTF wants to change that.
To ensure Africa’s health security, Adesina said that investing in domestic pharmaceutical production and innovation will increase employment, improve the trade balance, reduce healthcare costs, and ensure access to safe, quality, and affordable medicines.
"Africa needs to proactively build its capacity for future pandemics, enhancing production facilities and involvement in research and development. Africa needs to establish itself as an equal player, both regionally and globally.”
Experts note that building vibrant pharmaceutical production and innovation capacity is a complex undertaking that requires finance, good industrial infrastructure, well-placed business strategies, quality assurance standards, regulatory frameworks, and conducive policy frameworks. However, it is noted, without parallel emphasis on technology access, tacit know-how sharing, and learning, none of the other incentives delivers; which is why technology is a central issue that needs to be addressed holistically.
As noted on Monday, successful APTF operation requires: expanding product offerings tailored to Africa; emphasizing value creation; exploring a range of technological approaches; enhancing preparedness for pandemics; and increasing research and development capacity.
Prof. Padmashree Gehl Sampath, a Senior AfDB Advisor on Pharmaceuticals and Health noted that "our focus needs to be several key factors to achieve sustainable regional pharmaceutical production.”
The foundation comes as a solution to challenges facing African indigenous pharmaceutical companies such as weak human and institutional capacities, absorptive capacity for new technologies and lack of access to basic active pharmaceutical ingredients for drugs or antigens for vaccines.
APTF Advisory Council Chairmanship
The APTF Advisory Council Chairmanship has been handed to President Paul Kagame, along with other members including Moussa Faki, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of World Health Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of World Trade Organization, and Adesina of AfDB, among others.
The foundation is yet another impetus in the medical ecosystem that the AU is spearheading, including the African Medicine Agency (AMA) – a specialized agency intended to facilitate the harmonisation of medical products regulation across the continent in order to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products.
In addition, there is the ongoing construction of the BioNTech vaccine manufacturing plants in Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa, aimed at manufacturing and promoting scalable mRNA vaccines in Africa. In March, Rwanda received containers of the first BioNTainer- facilities in Kigali Special Economic Zone located at Masoro-Munini, Gasabo District.
According to the AfDB, Africa’s aspirations to build regional production capacity in the pharmaceutical sector is more than just part of an industrial development agenda to increase employment, promote a positive trade balance and reduce health care expenditure.
It is also more than just a part of national health policies seeking to promote access to safe and affordable drugs. Investing in domestic production and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector is central to enhancing Africa’s regional health security.
Such capacity will be critical if Africa is to play an equal role in pandemic and epidemic response in the future, both regionally and globally.