REFLECTING on the evolving landscape of Africa’s healthcare sector, it is evident that transformative changes are imperative for the continent to regain its manufacturing prowess and ensure reliable access to life-saving pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. We lost our manufacturing capability, and no country can be considered safe or secure unless it has an ecosystem that allows patients to have easy and reliable access to life-saving pharmaceuticals. We used to be a continent that was on the industrialization path, particularly in Nigeria during the 1960s and 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, with the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Policy, things began to change, enterprises began collapsing and departing Nigeria. We transitioned from a manufacturing nation to one those imports almost everything and developed a taste for imported items, including critical medicines. As a result, the event of COVID-19 was a wake-up call for us all. Everyone panicked, developed countries prioritized their country’s needs over everyone else’s. Africa had to wait till everyone was sorted out before receiving diagnostic tools and vaccines. Its position was worsened by weak purchasing power and poor logistics infrastructure.
In response to the challenges that Africa and other Low and middle-income countries faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the area of accessing vital vaccines, medications, and healthcare products, the World Health Organization (WHO) took a proactive step. They set up the World Local Production Forum with the aim of formulating effective strategies and fostering collaborative partnerships. The primary goal is to catalyze local production and facilitate technology transfer, empowering these nations to build capabilities that enhance their responsiveness to future pandemics and healthcare challenges. As a novel industry where there is limited expertise in the continent, partnering with global pharmaceutical companies to facilitate technology transfer from them to local manufacturers is very vital, as these technologies can be leveraged to solve neglected disease problems peculiar to Africa.
However, despite all these measures being put in place to help with the localization of healthcare in Africa, and to ensure the preparedness and capability of the continent to tackle any future emergency healthcare challenges, there are still some significant hurdles that African healthcare entrepreneurs will have to face. One of which is funding. Firstly, being a continent where capital is expensive, funding to invest in healthcare projects to drive such initiatives is extremely tough to obtain due to exorbitant interest rates on credit facilities. This puts African healthcare entrepreneurs at a disadvantage when compared to peers in the Western world, where lending facilities have lower interest rates. While conversations with multilateral financial institutions to access cost-effective and flexible funding are ongoing, the success of such discussions is not guaranteed as the overall loan amount requested does not align with the lending parameters of the bank.
Another obstacle is assuring product quality, stemming from the dearth of skilled and experienced human capital. This necessitates investment in human capacity and skillset to ensure continuity and drive sustainability of such initiatives through training of scientists and researchers to meet industry needs. The third and most critical challenge to resolve in achieving African healthcare self-reliance is ensuring that local production facilities adhere to the standards required by prospective buyers. This is critical because the complexity of manufacturing in Africa necessitates large-scale production to overcome these challenges. Donors are typically the greatest buyers of healthcare products from such manufacturers, but for procurement to occur, these manufacturing facilities must be WHO-prequalified, ensuring the quality of the healthcare products. In recognition of the difficulty of obtaining prequalification approval, a journey that typically takes several years before being granted, and specifically for drug production, the WHO has established its WHO LA, i.e. listing authorities, ensuring that upon a facility being approved by an LA, donors will be assured of the products from these facilities.
These are all the measures being put in place to help with the localization of healthcare in Africa and to ensure the preparedness and capability of the continent to tackle any future emergency healthcare challenges. The scheme aimed at enhancing African manufacturing capacity for the production of healthcare products and reducing dependence on global supply chains provides the opportunity for the production of customized solutions for African healthcare needs. However, despite these daunting challenges, I believe that dedicated African healthcare entrepreneurs will capitalise on this to chart a transformative pathway in the African healthcare ecosystem. These are exciting times, and I am hopeful for the future of the African healthcare system.
- Ogunjimi is Group Managing Director at Codix Pharma Ltd and Executive Chairman of Colexa Biosensor Ltd
