The continent’s efforts to achieve greater public health independence is a work in progress. Here’s a look at what to expect out of some of these efforts this year.
By Sara Jerving // 04 January 2024
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The African continent is working toward a “new public health order” — a vision to achieve greater independence from foreign entities for the population’s health needs.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, African nations were at the back of the queue for critical lifesaving supplies — notably vaccines. The devastation this brought pushed the continent’s leadership to reshuffle the public health architecture to work toward ensuring the health security of a population of over a billion people.
This includes pushing forward the creation of a new pan-African regulatory agency, a new epidemics fund, a more autonomous Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and efforts to boost the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, among others.
Most of these efforts are a work in progress. Here’s a look at where some of them stand and what to expect out of them this year.
The African Medicines Agency
The African Union is in the process of setting up the African Medicines Agency, which aims to harmonize the continent’s disjointed regulatory systems. This new agency is expected to help facilitate local pharmaceutical manufacturing and combat substandard and falsified drugs. There is speculation that we will see the official launch of AMA this year.
The governing board is expected to be finalized soon, and after this happens, recruitment for a director general who will handle the day-to-day management of the agency. AMA’s office in Kigali stands waiting for when the hiring of staff can commence.
The African Union’s heads of state must sign off on the choice of a director general during one of their biannual summits. The next meeting is scheduled for February, followed by one in July.
There are 10 technical committees under AMA. The newest — a committee on pharmacovigilance and safety surveillance — is slated to commence work this month.
Read more: Here’s how the African Medicines Agency is coming together (Pro)
Africa CDC
In recent years, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has been in the midst of a process to become more autonomous from the African Union. Last year was a moment of transition for Africa CDC under the new leadership of Dr. Jean Kaseya, who took on the role in April.
In July 2023, the AU granted the agency the ability to increase its staff size — and since then, it has had a hiring spree.
The organization’s largest program, the Saving Lives and Livelihoods Initiative, entered into its second phase late last year, which will continue into this year. The program was originally launched to roll out COVID-19 vaccines but when the pandemic was no longer considered an emergency, the program went on a several-month pause and audit in order to recalibrate its strategy.
The organization is also crafting a new Africa Epidemics Fund. While African heads of state agreed to create the fund in 2022, Africa CDC is working to create its governance framework. The agency expects to put this new structure to African leaders for confirmation in February when heads of state meet for their annual summit. Upon approval, the AU will need to fundraise for it.
At Africa CDC’s flagship conference in November, Kaseya said a technical working group is steering the technical design of a continent-wide pooled procurement mechanism for health products. He said this will also be put to heads of state in February for approval.
“That will be the game changer in the area of market shaping for local manufacturing,” he said.
Read more: Africa Epidemics Fund slated for approval in February
Africa Public Health Foundation
The Africa Public Health Foundation, which works to mobilize resources for Africa CDC’s funding priorities, came under new leadership last year with the appointment of Dr. Ebere Okereke. Since then, one of her priorities has been raising the profile of the foundation.
In the first quarter of this year, the foundation will launch its strategic plan, which it intends to leverage to solidify new partnerships.
“Our goal for 2024 is to be seen as the enabler of choice for new partners interested in supporting Africa CDC’s strategic ambitions,” Okereke said.
Another priority for her teams is building a strong evidence base for the Africa CDC’s programs which they are fundraising, in order to create investment cases. They’re also working to strengthen monitoring and impact evaluation of these programs.
Their aim is to be “findable and fundable,” she said.
To mobilize these resources, they’re targeting private foundations, corporate social responsibility funds, high net-worth individuals, and a particular focus on “looking inwards across the continent to identify new partners,” Okereke said.
To this end, they’re also recruiting an external relations director “to accelerate our ambitions to identify and engage new funding opportunities,” she said.
African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation
This year, the new African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation begins its work.
The African Development Bank launched the foundation in 2022 to serve as a Pan-African agency that brings manufacturing companies — local and international — to the table to make deals around technology transfers.
Since this soft launch, the foundation’s team has been busy building its structure, which has included setting up the board, advisory council, operational procedures, and office in Kigali. The foundation signed a host country agreement with Rwanda in December.
Starting this month, the foundation’s team is ready to get to work. This includes the launch of four programs that focus on:
• Helping African firms achieve “good manufacturing practice” certification.
• Using TRIPs flexibilities for the production of generic medicines.
• Creating a vibrant biosimilars industry.
• Building “regional centers of excellence.”
Pharmaceutical companies, institutions, and governments can now reach out to the foundation through their website for inclusion in these programs.
Currently, they have five staff members and an interim chief executive officer but they plan to expand this year and bring in more funding.
“We have ongoing discussions with several other funding agencies, which will develop and mature over the course of the next few months,” professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath, chief executive officer, said.
Read more: New foundation is ready to help African pharmaceutical manufacturers (Pro)
mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub
The world’s first messenger RNA vaccine technology transfer hub, located in Cape Town, is working to create a global network aimed at reshaping pandemic preparedness in low- and middle-income countries through the production of mRNA vaccines.
It’s hosted at Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines and was launched in 2021 by the World Health Organization and the Medicines Patent Pool, among others.
The hub is developing its own mRNA vaccines — taking the process from the research phase to the manufacturing of the final product. And it’s teaching this know-how to its 15 partners in low- and middle-income countries through the mRNA tech transfer program.
Professor Petro Terblanche, chief executive officer of Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines, said beyond transferring knowledge and technology to its partners next year, one of the hub’s goals is to achieve a “good manufacturing practice” license in South Africa for the manufacture of mRNA drug substance and drug product by the third quarter of this year. Not enough of the actual drug substance is produced on the continent — which the hub is working to change.
“Afrigen will also work with partners to advance novel vaccine targets relevant for the burden of diseases in [low- and middle-income countries] to contribute to a pipeline of products critical for inter-pandemic sustainability and public health impact of the programme partners,” Terblanche said in an email.
ICYMI: South Africa’s lax patent laws threaten mRNA hub sustainability
BioNTech mRNA facility in Rwanda
In mid-December, German biotechnology company BioNTech unveiled its new modular mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Kigali, Rwanda. Within two years, the Kigali facility is expected to be able to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses annually.
It’s not yet producing, and 2024 will be another year of construction and training staff.
The company expects to manufacture test batches for regulatory approval in 2025.
“Once fully commissioned, the factory will be one of the most advanced mRNA vaccine production facilities in the world,” according to a Rwandan government spokesperson.
Read: BioNTech unveils its first mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa
African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator
At the end of last year, the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, approved the creation of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, which will make up to $1 billion available over ten years to support vaccine manufacturing on the continent.
Its aim is to establish “a sustainable African vaccine manufacturing industry capable of improving the region’s resilience in the face of pandemics, outbreaks and other health emergencies as well as the health of global vaccine markets.”
Its official launch will be in June during a ceremony in France.
About the author
Sara JervingsarajervingSara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media’s Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.