Patience Leonard, PBA Journalism MenteeAfrican pharmaceutical technology foundation has been approved by the board of African Development Bank (AfDB) to transform the countinent’s pharmaceutical industry.
The approval which was done in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire Monday, June 27th 2022 is to significantly enhance Africa’s access to the technologies that underlie the manufacture of modern medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products.
The call for the establishment of African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation by AfDB group started since February 2022 by the continent’s leaders in Addis Ababa during the African Union Summit.
According to a report released by the AfDB group, the foundation will significantly enhance Africa’s access to the technologies that underpin the manufacture of medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products.
Commenting on the approval, the AfDB president, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said, “This is a great development for Africa. Africa must have a health defense system, which must include three major areas: revamping Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, building Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity, and building Africa’s quality healthcare infrastructure.”
Adesina who presented the case for the institution to the AU said, “Africa can no longer outsource the healthcare security of its 1.3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others.”
It was, however, revealed that global efforts to rapidly expand the manufacturing of essential pharmaceutical products including vaccines, particularly in Africa, to assure greater access, have been hampered by intellectual property rights protection and patents on technologies, know-how, manufacturing processes and trade secrets.
The report said, “African pharmaceutical companies do not have the scouting and negotiation capacity, and bandwidth to engage with global pharmaceutical companies. They have been marginalized and left behind in complex global pharmaceutical innovations. Recently, 35 companies signed a license with America’s Merck to produce Nirmatrelvir, a COVID-19 drug. None of them was African.”
“So the decision is a major boost to the health prospects of a continent that has been battered for decades by the burden of several diseases and pandemics such as COVID-19, but with very limited capacity to produce its own medicines and vaccines,” said AfDB. “Africa imports more than 70% of all the medicines it needs, gulping $14 billion per year.” the report added.
It was also reported that no institution exists on ground in Africa to support the practical implementation of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) on non-exclusive or exclusive licensing of proprietary technologies, know-how and processes. Therefore, the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will fill the gap.
AfDB said that when fully established, it will be staffed with world-class experts on pharmaceutical innovation and development, intellectual property rights, and health policy; acting as a transparent intermediator advancing and brokering the interests of the African pharmaceutical sector with global and other Southern pharmaceutical companies to share IP-protected technologies, know-how and patented processes.
Reacting to this, Adesina said “Even with the decision of the TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO), millions are dying -and will most likely continue to die – from lack of vaccines and effective protection. The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation provides a practical solution and will help to tilt the access to proprietary technologies, knowledge, know-how and processes in favor of Africa”
Also, WTO and the World Health Organization (WHO), respectively, welcomed the AfDB’s decision to establish the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.
Director-General of WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said “The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation is an innovative thinking and action by the African Development Bank. It provides part of the infrastructure needed to assure an emergent pharmaceutical industry in Africa”. Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, added “Establishing the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, by the African Development Bank, is a game changer on accelerating the access of African pharmaceutical companies to IP-protected technologies and know-how in Africa”.
Meanwhile, 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.
According to the report also, the foundation will prioritize 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 upgrading of manufacturing plant capacities and regulatory quality to meet World Health Organization standards.
Notwithstanding, the Foundation being established under the auspices of the AfDB, it will operate independently and raise funds from various stakeholders including governments, development finance institutions, philanthropic organizations among others.
The Foundation is also geared towards boosting 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.
The foundation will work with organisations like African Union Commission, European Union Commission, the World Health Organization, the Medicines Patent Pool, the World Trade Organization, and philanthropic organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies and institutions. It will foster collaboration between the public and private sectors in developed countries and developing countries while working with their governments too.
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