The African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development has held a 2-day workshop with the goal of discussing how to efficiently coordinate initiatives around the continent in order to strengthen Africa’s capacity to manufacture all medicines.
The sitting saw the discussion of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa’s (PMPA) governance framework, which seeks to govern all the initiatives which are supporting the local manufacture of medicines in Africa.
The workshop, this time around, sought to cover more topics beyond the usual concerns of the AUD-NEPAD, which are malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
In an interview with B&FT, Mrs. Janet Byaruhanga, a member of AUDA, said: “Today’s discussions are beyond those three endemic diseases; we are discussing vaccines, technologies, medical supplies and other consumables”.
She also indicated policies that the union decided to put in place will include all the necessary policies which are the trade and industry policies, financial and economic policies, health policies, and especially, private industry policies since the industry is mainly run and driven by the private sector.
Over 20 participants from South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya, Namibia, and other African leaders took part in the workshop.
Moreover, there were leaders from member-states, regional economic communities, pharmaceutical industries, and others present.
The vision of PMPA is to create a competitive, self-reliant and a sustainable pharmaceutical industry to ensure access to a stable and reliable supply of safe, efficient and quality medical products.
Mrs. Janet Byaruhanga explained that building a competitive industry means that one should be able to produce the volumes and quality that can compete with the qualities and volumes coming from other entities beyond the continent.
