AfDB to Establish Foundation for Africa’s Selfsufficiency in Medicine, Vaccines’ Production
The African Development Bank’s (AfDB) has approved the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) that is meant to champion the quest for Africa’s to manufacture its own medicines and vaccines.
The APTF which would be hosted in Rwanda is expected to significantly transform pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa and enhance the continent’s access to the technologies that underpin the manufacture of medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products.
The foundation would also prioritise technologies, products and processes that are focused primarily on diseases that are widely prevalent in Africa, including current and future pandemics.
It would also develop human and professional skills, the research and development ecosystem, and support upgrading of manufacturing plant capacities and regulatory quality to meet World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. In addition, it would also promote and broker alliances between foreign and African pharmaceutical companies.
The President of AfDB Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina described the step to establish the APTF as a great development for Africa.
Adesina said: “Africa can no longer outsource the healthcare security of its 1.3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others. 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.
“Even with the decision of the TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), millions are dying -and will most likely continue to die - from lack of vaccines and effective protection. The APTF provides a practical solution and will help to tilt the access to proprietary technologies, knowledge, know-how and processes in favor of Africa.”
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the WHO in their respective reactions commended the AfDB’s decision to establish the APTF.
The Director-General of the WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said: “The APTF is innovative thinking and action by the AfDB. It provides part of the infrastructure needed to assure an emergent pharmaceutical industry in Africa.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said: “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.”
The approval of the establishment of the foundation was in response to the call on the AfDB in February 2022 by African leaders during the African Union’s summit in Addis Ababa to facilitate the establishment of the APTF.
The AfDB in a statement yesterday said the establishment of the APTF would be a major boost to the health prospects of a continent that had 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.
The bank said, “Africa imports more than 70 per cent of all the medicines it needs, gulping $14 billion per year.”
It stated that the global efforts to rapidly expand the manufacturing of essential pharmaceutical products including vaccines particularly in Africa, to assure greater access medicine, had 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 scouting and negotiation capacity, and bandwidth to engage with global pharmaceutical companies. They have been marginalised 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.
“No institution exists on the 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.
“The APTF will fill this important and glaring gap. 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 inter-mediator 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,” the AfDB said.
The bank also announced that the APTF would operate independently and raise funds from various stakeholders including governments, development finance institutions, and philanthropic organisations among others.
The foundation would also, “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.”
The APTF would also strengthen 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, research and development centers of excellence to strengthen the regional pharmaceutical and vaccine innovation ecosystem for Africa and build skills of the kind needed for the pharmaceutical sector to flourish.