The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the creation of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, which will contribute to access to technologies for manufacturing drugs, vaccines and other pharmaceutical products in Africa, the institution announced today.

For the president of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwumi Adesina, this is "a major development for Africa.

"Africa must have a health defense system, which must include three main areas: revamping the African pharmaceutical industry, building vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa, and building quality health infrastructure in Africa," he said.

During the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in February 2022, the continent's leaders called on the AfDB to facilitate the creation of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.

Adesina, who presented the arguments for the creation of the institution to the African Union, said, "Africa can no longer outsource the security of its 1.3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others."

According to the institution, the decision is "a major 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 with very limited capacity to produce its own medicines and vaccines.

Africa imports over 70% of all the medicines it needs, spending $14 billion a year.

Global efforts to rapidly expand manufacturing of key pharmaceuticals including vaccines in developing countries, particularly in Africa, to ensure greater access have been hampered by protection of intellectual property rights and patents on technologies, knowledge, manufacturing processes, and trade secrets.

According to the AfDB, African pharmaceutical companies lack the prospecting and negotiating capacity and 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 U.S. Merck to produce Nirmatrelvir, a covid-19 drug, and none of them were African," the organization continued.

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 in the South to share patented technologies, knowledge and processes protected by intellectual property.

Source: News to the Minute