COVID-19 exposed Africa’s vulnerabilities and its urgent need for local innovation and drug development. Leading African scientist KELLY CHIBALE discusses some of the key challenges. Improving scientific skills in Africa and stemming the continent’s brain drain weigh heavily on Professor Kelly Chibale’s mind, particularly as COVID-19 pandemic has damaged fragile health systems and reversed hard-fought […] Continue reading ->
Rwanda has been selected to host the headquarters of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) by the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) at a meeting held in the Zambian capital of Lusaka on Saturday. The council agreed that AMA will enhance the capacity of AU state parties and the continent’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs) […] Continue reading ->
The wider use of pooled procurement in national health systems can help low- and middle-income countries get a better deal on pharmaceuticals – here’s how and why. Low- and middle-income countries are making strides in bolstering their domestic pharmaceutical sectors—evidenced by the recent deal between South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics and Belgium’s Univercells, to develop the […] Continue reading ->
A meeting to decide which African country will be the host country for the African Medicines Agency (AMA) is underway and at the last count, expressions of interest in hosting the agency have been received from Uganda, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. The decision is expected to be one of the outcomes […] Continue reading ->
[NAIROBI] Kenya is preparing to join the African Medicines Agency alongside thirty-one other African Union member states following the Kenyan cabinet’s decision to approve the ratification of the African Union Treaty last Thursday. The move by the cabinet, chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, would be a major boost to the AMA’s establishment given that Kenya […] Continue reading ->
Some thirteen African nations have expressed interest in hosting the new African Medicines Agency, with an AU decision on where to establish the AMA’s headquarters set for July 2022, senior African Union officials say. A decision on a headquarters would also pave the way for the recruitment of a director general for the new AMA […] Continue reading ->
Within one year, Africa has gone from waiting for its first COVID-19 vaccine shipment from the WHO-supported global COVAX facility to having excess doses available that some countries are struggling roll out efficiently. Reflections on the first anniversary of the massive COVAX vaccine rollout. On 24 February 2021, Health Policy Watch reported the global COVAX […] Continue reading ->
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Friday called on Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, and COVAX, the global COVID vaccine consortium to begin procuring African-made versions of vaccines for COVID and other diseases, as soon as a network of new African manufacturing facilities, now in the making, are in full production. He spoke in Brussels at an […] Continue reading ->
The German-based BioNTech, which co-developed with Pfizer an mRNA COVID vaccine, said on Wednesday that it will set up modular “turnkey” mRNA vaccine facilities to produce the vaccine in Rwanda and Senegal in 2022 – with a fill-and-finish collaboration in Ghana as well. South Africa, which is the new hub for the WHO-supported mRNA vaccine […] Continue reading ->
The African Union could decide on the host country for the African Medicines Agency (AMA) as early as July, while the agency’s director-general should be appointed by the end of the year. This is according to Margaret Ndomondo-Sigonda, Head of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation Initiative at AUDA-NEPAD, the African Union’s development agency. The AU […] Continue reading ->