The African Development Bank (ADB) recently approved the creation of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, which will contribute to access to technologies for the manufacture of medicines, vaccines and other pharmaceutical products in Africa.
"This is a major development for Africa, which must have a health defense system, which must include three main areas: renewing the African pharmaceutical industry, building vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa and building quality health infrastructure. in Africa”, said the president of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina.
The creation of this foundation comes at the request of the leaders of the African continent, who during the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, in February 2022, called on the AfDB to facilitate the creation of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.
"Africa can no longer subcontract the security of its 1,3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others”, he stressed.
According to the institution, the decision is “a big boost” for the health prospects of a continent that has been battered for decades by the burden of various diseases and pandemics, such as covid-19, but having a very limited capacity to produce its own medicines and vaccines.
In recent years, Africa has imported more than 70% of all the medicines it needs, spending 14 billion dollars (13,2 billion euros) a year.
BUT: Mozambique produces the majority of all health science research in the PALOP
Global efforts to rapidly expand manufacturing of essential pharmaceuticals, including vaccines, in developing countries, particularly in Africa, to ensure greater access, have been hampered by the protection of intellectual property rights and patents on technologies, knowledge, manufacturing processes and trade secrets.
According to the AfDB, African pharmaceutical companies do not have the prospecting and negotiating capacity, nor the breadth 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 US Merck to produce Nirmatrelvir, a drug for covid-19, and none of them were African.”, underlined the organization.
When the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation is fully established, it will be staffed with world-class experts in pharmaceutical innovation and development, intellectual property rights and health policy.
This foundation will act as a transparent intermediary, advancing and brokering the interests of the African pharmaceutical sector with global pharmaceutical companies and other companies from the South to share technologies, knowledge and patented processes protected by intellectual property.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed and commended this AfDB decision.
