Despite initiatives and texts put in place by the African Union, Africa is struggling to launch the production of generic drugs worthy of the name.
This Tuesday, August 23, AfricaIntelligence indicates that "Nairobi dreams of being the regional capital of generic drugs" and that the outgoing government has launched a support operation for Kenyan companies that want to start producing generic drugs. The opportunity to develop an almost virgin market.
Because Africa today is highly dependent on other continents in this sector. Europe currently supplies nearly half of the pharmaceutical products it consumes. More generally, Africa imports more than 80% of its pharmaceutical products and medical consumables.
However, several countries have tried to get into the manufacture of drugs. Like South Africa, Kenya, Morocco or even Egypt. According to the authorities of these countries, these cover between 70% and 80% of their needs. Gabon also launched, in November 2020, a first drug production plant.
Covid-19 has shown Africa's dependence
Still, the finding is worrying for other states, and the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted Africa's pharmaceutical vacuum as well as the continent's strong dependence on the West.
In 2005, however, the African Union (AU) took the decision to launch the African Medicines Agency and published a “model law” on the regulation of medical products. Two years later, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA) was launched. It was not until 2012 that the Conference of AU Heads of State approved a PMPA business plan, which, according to the UN, should make it possible to "stimulate local pharmaceutical production and thus improve the public health outcomes”.
But while waiting for its effectiveness, Africa is struggling to set up a pharmaceutical industry worthy of the name. As in Tunisia, where the Central Pharmacy is only very rarely delivered with drugs, and even generics, because of payment defaults.
However, the urgency is there: in addition to the continent's dependence on foreign countries, this phenomenon has also caused another market to explode, of counterfeit drugs, which would represent almost 60% of the drugs consumed in Africa. As to expired drugs, they continue to be sold to the people.
A void to fill
The UN is aware of the bottlenecks to the PMPA: “The PMPA business plan underscores the urgency of addressing the challenges facing the industry. One such challenge is the lack of affordable finance and modern technology, which hampers business expansion, writes the international organization. Other challenges are Africa's small, fragmented markets and weak regulatory frameworks. Insufficient human resource capacity also hampers the growth of Africa's pharmaceutical sector, as do poor procurement and procurement systems and policy inconsistencies in the departments of trade, industry, health and finance. countries ".
For the United Nations, “due to a lack of financial capacity, companies invest little or nothing in research and development and in the protection of intellectual property”. The UN says, however, that the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zleca) could help fill the void in this sector. But we are still far from it...
For Janet Byaruhanga, Senior Program Officer, Public Health, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Africa “needs to implement trade facilitation policies. Countries need to strengthen and harmonize their regulatory systems to ensure the quality of medical products and ensure that local manufacturers meet international standards.” Because, she says, “when fully implemented, the PMPA business plan will create jobs for millions of unemployed Africans and usher in a knowledge economy that will drive the fourth industrial revolution.”