The African Medicines Agency, an announced failure?

Launched more than two years ago, the African Medicines Agency has still not seen the light of day. The Rwandan president is trying to speed up its implementation.

The idea dates back to 2009 already. Since then, it has been the status quo. On paper, the African Medicines Agency (AMA) was an ambitious project. At the time, we knew it: creating this agency would take time. But by setting the launch date of the AMA at 2018, the members of the African Union were far from imagining that in 2021, the project would still be at a standstill. The goal was laudable, however. The AMA was supposed to make it possible to create regulatory harmonization, but above all to ensure that all Africans had access to medicines at affordable prices. Finally, WADA was going to help develop an African pharmaceutical industry.

Twelve years later, WADA moved forward on a single point, the appointment of a director, the Malian Michel Sidibé. But what good is having a director if the structure does not exist? Sixteen countries, among which Burkina Faso, Guinea and even Ghana have signed the agreement to create WADA but barely two, Rwanda and Mali, have ratified it. What are the bottlenecks for it to take so long?

In December 2020, Michel Sidibé explained that the blockage is not due to "a technical problem but it is a political question". In this complicated health period, especially because of limited access to vaccines, can the situation be improved? " Heads of State must be brought to understand that the health of populations is an important issue for the continent ”, assures the future director of WADA.

Power struggle within the future AMA

And if it is therefore a political question, the president of one of the only two countries having ratified the treaty creating the agency, Paul Kagame, hopes to be the spearhead. In Rwanda, he received Ibrahim Mayaki, the executive secretary of the African Union development agency. As chairman of steering committee of heads of state within the AU, Kagame hopes to convince his counterparts of the urgency of ratifying the agreement.

The Rwandan president has until July to put pressure on African heads of state. But not only: Rwanda hopes to put the private sector and the pharmaceutical industry in the loop.

And time is running out. Without an agency, it is the UA directly that manages vaccine purchases, in particular within the framework of the Covax initiative. However, with WADA, things could have been different. " Such an agency can also facilitate the negotiation of global orders as soon as possible and at a lower cost by putting on the table the specific needs of African countries so that no one is left behind ”, affirms, dreamer, Dan Nouhou Briria, director at the Nigerien Ministry of Health.

Another sticking point is logistics: where would WADA be based and which countries would get key positions? Beyond health, it is on these points that the presidents are already discussing. These basic material issues past, the AU will be able to accelerate the implementation of the AMA and benefit in particular from the creation a few months ago of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf).