The African Foundation for Pharmaceutical Technology is born

Based in Kigali, Rwanda, this agency aims to strengthen Africa’s capacity to produce medicines and vaccines as well as to provide diagnostics and therapeutic treatments.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa imports more than 70% of the medicines it needs, at an annual cost of $14 billion. Statistics that absolutely need to be changed to allow African countries to develop their own capacities for manufacturing pharmaceutical products. Hence the idea of setting up the African Foundation for Pharmaceutical Technology planned to be created in June 2022.

This is the meaning of the new African Foundation for Pharmaceutical Technology, whose creation was formalized on December 14, 2022, on the occasion of an International Conference on public health in Africa, which was held in Kigali. The capital of Rwanda will also host the headquarters of this new institution. «This new initiative is a solution, because most African countries are still struggling to receive medicines on time,» justifies the Rwandan Minister of Health, Yvan Butera. The Foundation is expected to be operational at the beginning of 2023.

As we know, the pandemic crisis has highlighted «the fragility of international health systems and the gaps in the production of essential medicines on the continent», justifies Solomon Quaynor, from the AfDB. «The African Foundation for Pharmaceutical Technology is an innovative institution that will significantly improve Africa’s access to the technologies that underpin the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. »

«African pharmaceutical companies face three specific obstacles: access to technology and related know-how for production, the mobilization of national resources for technological upgrading and the lack of opportunities for horizontal and vertical diversification of products,» says Padmashree Gehl Sampath, advisor to the President of the AfDB….