Grace Ashiru
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has given their approval to the African Pharmaceuticals Industry Foundation. This groundbreaking new institution will make a big difference in Africa’s exposure to the technologies that help make pharmaceutical products, vaccines and drugs.
The President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said that it is a great thing for Africa. Africa needs to improve its pharmaceutical industry, make it easier to make vaccines, and build a better system for health care. These three facets will combine to form its overall health defence system.
Because the continent has a very limited ability to produce its vaccines and medicines, and because it has been ravaged for a long time by a variety of diseases as well as the COVID19, this move represents a tremendous boost to the continent’s hopes for improving its overall health. More than seventy per cent of all of the pharmaceuticals that Africa requires are imported, which results in an annual cost of $14 billion for the continent.
African pharmaceutical companies cannot communicate with international pharmaceutical companies due to a lack of resources in scouting, bargaining, and bandwidth.
African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation is going to fill this essential and visible void. As soon as it can function at its full potential, it staffs will consist of leading specialists in the domains of pharmaceutical development and research, intellectual property rights and health policy. It will act as an honest middleman, negotiating and advancing in the interest of the African pharmaceutical with Southern and international pharmaceuticals to share intellectual know-how, patented processes, and IP-protected technology.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the head of the World Trade Organization, says that the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation shows that it is thinking and acting in a new way. It has some of the infrastructure needed to ensure that Africa’s pharmaceutical industry will grow.
The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will give great importance to innovations in products, technologies and processes aimed at diseases and pandemics that are common in Africa.
It will also help improve regulatory quality manufacturing capacity, and the environment for development and research to meet the needs of the WHO.
The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation would function independently and seek financial support from various stakeholders, including development finance institutions, governmental organizations, charitable organizations, and more!. It will be established with the assistance of the AfDB as its sponsor.
AfDB has committed to increasing its pledge of spending at least USD 3 billion over the next decade to help the vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing industries as part of its Vision 2030 Pharmaceutical Action Plan.
