Decrease foreign pharmaceutical imports
THE 12th International Aids Society Conference on HIV Science was recently held in Brisbane, featuring a number of studies that have come to represent important advances in HIV prevention, treatment and cure research.
The conference offered the WHO an opportunity to announce that there is negligible, or almost zero risk of transmitting HIV when a person has a suppressed viral load.
These findings have underscored the significance of meeting UNAids “95-95-95” targets, which call for 95% of people living with HIV to be aware of their status, 95% of those aware of their status to be on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 95% of those on ART to achieve viral load suppression.
WHO’s scientific research must incentivise public and private stakeholders to work together to spearhead the development of Africa’s pharmaceutical and biological manufacturing framework if we want to improve our ability to prevent, detect and limit the transmission of the virus at its epicentre.
In order to achieve this, we must decrease our reliance on foreign pharmaceutical imports by securing Africa’s own supply of lifesaving ARVs over the long-term. African scientists must be supported to develop their own intellectual property for developing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) if we want to build an end-to-end manufacturing framework on the continent.
Investing (locally) in a biologics facility with the capacity to manufacture APIs and supply PrEP injectables will also remain a significant undertaking. If we can develop the technology and APIs to manufacture PrEP locally, with other mRNA based products, South Africa could position itself at the forefront of this initiative. The world-renowned Afrigen Biologics mRNA hub in Cape Town, already aims to contribute significantly to this initiative.
We will have to leverage the expertise of our closest allies and make use of all grant-funding opportunities to make this a reality. Perhaps South Africa, with its intellectual capacity and infrastructure, can lead the charge to improve medicine and vaccine supply security for the whole continent – soon.
MICHAEL MYNHARDT | Group Executive & Business Strategist