African Development Bank Group President,
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “This is a great development for Africa. 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.”
During the African Union Summit in Addis
Ababa in February 2022, the continent’s leaders called on the African
Development Bank to facilitate the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical
Technology Foundation. Adesina, who presented the case for the institution to
the African Union said: “Africa can no longer outsource the healthcare security
of its 1.3 billion citizens to the benevolence of others.” With this bold
initiative, the African Development Bank has made good on that commitment.
The decision is a major boost to the health
prospects of a continent that has been battered for decades by the burden of
several diseases and pandemics such as Covid19, but with very limited capacity
to produce its own medicines and vaccines. Africa imports more than 70% of all
the medicines it needs, gulping $14 billion per year.
Global efforts to rapidly expand the
manufacturing of essential pharmaceutical products including vaccines in
developing countries, particularly in Africa, to assure greater access, have
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 marginalized 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 African Pharmaceutical Technology
Foundation 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 intermediator 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.
Adesina said “Even with the decision of the
TRIPS Waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO), millions are dying -and
will most likely continue to die – from lack of vaccines and effective
protection. The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation 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 Organization and the World Health Organization,
respectively, welcomed and lauded the African Development Bank’s decision to
establish the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.
The Director-General of the World Trade
Organization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said “The African Pharmaceutical
Technology Foundation is innovative thinking and action by the African
Development Bank. It provides part of the infrastructure needed to assure an
emergent pharmaceutical industry in Africa”.
The Director-General of the World Health
Organization, 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 African Pharmaceutical Technology
Foundation will prioritize technologies, products and processes focused
primarily on diseases that are widely prevalent in Africa, including current
and future pandemics. It will also build human and professional skills, the
research and development ecosystem, and support upgrading of manufacturing
plant capacities and regulatory quality to meet World Health Organization
standards.
While the African Pharmaceutical Technology
Foundation is being established under the auspices of the African Development
Bank, it will operate independently and raise funds from various stakeholders
including governments, development finance institutions, philanthropic
organizations among others.
The Foundation will boost the African
Development Bank’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.
Rwanda will host the African Pharmaceutical
Technology Foundation. A common benefits entity, the Foundation will have its
own governance and operational structures. It will promote and broker alliances
between foreign and African pharmaceutical companies.
The African Pharmaceutical Technology
Foundation will 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.
It will also promote closer coordination of
the various ongoing medicines and vaccines’ manufacturing initiatives at the
regional level to increase collaborative linkages, leverage synergies and
partnerships in a pan-African context.
The African Pharmaceutical Technology
Foundation will work closely with the African Union Commission, European Union
Commission, the World Health Organization, the Medicines Patent Pool, the World
Trade Organization, philanthropic organizations, bilateral and multilateral
agencies and institutions, and will foster collaboration between the public and
private sectors in developed countries and developing countries.