The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) and Nigeria's National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) will work together to revolutionize the country's pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing industry.
The decision was announced by the two organisations following a High-Level Dialogue on Technology Gaps in Nigeria's Pharmaceutical and Vaccine Industry' hosted in Abuja from 18-19 March.
The APTF will work with countries such as Nigeria to help them achieve Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to ensure they meet World Health Organization standards, and to build local capacity and specific skills to strengthen domestic production of medicines.
Senior government officials and representatives of the private sector, development institutions, pharmaceutical manufacturers, researchers, and other stakeholders from across Africa attended the meeting. The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, an independent agency established by the African Development Bank Group, works to promote a strong and competitive pharmaceutical sector in Africa.
In his remarks, Nigeria's Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, welcomed the support of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation. Its efforts to address technology gaps in the health sector would enable the government to accelerate medicines delivery in the country, he said.
"With the steps taken so far, I am confident that the government's prioritisation of local vaccine production will begin to yield the desired results in the shortest possible time and drastically reduce dependence on pharmaceutical imports," Alausa said.
He added that the country has a national plan in place for the research, development, and local production of vaccines. The African pharmaceutical market is estimated to be worth over $47 billion, but the continent spends more than $14 billion annually importing medicines and vaccines.
Nigeria manufactures 25% of its products and imports 75%, while Africa imports 99% of vaccines and 80-90% of medicines.
CEO Prof. Padmashree Gehl Sampath of the APTF stressed that its partnership with NIPRD would remove barriers to domestic manufacturing and foster a healthcare value chain in Nigeria. This in turn would drive innovation, competition, process and price transparency, and access to an expanding range of high-quality life science and biomedical products.
Sampath said, "One of the things we could start thinking about in Nigeria, and we have actually talked to some people about this, is a joint Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Industrial Park." She said that India had just invested 800 billion rupees to build an API park to better compete with China on this front.
Sampath added: "As an African regional agency, we work with every single country in Africa. We have all the international agencies that we work closely with, we have foreign companies and local companies that we work very closely with, and we have already been in contact with many either foreign companies or domestic companies or we already represent them, and we are trying to see if we can make those partnerships happen."
NIPRD's Director General and CEO Dr Obi Peter Adigwe underscored the need for accelerated action to advance drug safety and sustainable local production of vaccines in Nigeria. NIPRD promotes the development and commercialisation of phytomedicines, medicines, and biological products, including vaccines, from Nigeria's indigenous natural resources.
"We may need to do some technographic mapping as a next step to engage stakeholders and policymakers," Adigwe said. He added that three companies attending the meeting had expressed interest in starting vaccine production within the next 24 to 36 months.
Prof. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Senior Special Adviser to the president of the African Development Bank on industrialisation, emphasised the strong link between industry and healthcare.
"We need to look at other sectors to diversify the economy. And pharmaceuticals are one of the areas where countries can at least reduce imports, even if they do not export," he said. "It helps to create jobs at home and reduce the number of young people killing themselves in the Mediterranean. So, this is the future of our society."
About The APTF
Established by the African Development Bank as an independent agency, the APTF focuses on building the capacity of African companies, research institutions and governments to ensure a strong and competitive pharmaceutical sector in the region.
The Foundation is the first of its kind in Africa to systematically address barriers to technology access in Africa's public and private sectors, including through the licensing of proprietary technologies, know-how, and processes.
