SA’s biggest generic drug maker, Aspen Pharmacare, is advocating for the establishment of a pooled procurement mechanism for African pharmaceuticals, arguing that it will improve security of supply and widen access to life-saving vaccines and medicines.
Africa’s vulnerability to global pharmaceutical shortages was thrown into sharp relief during the coronavirus pandemic, as the continent’s nations were relegated to the back of the queue when Covid-19 vaccines were in short supply. Africa imports 99% of its vaccines, and countries with domestic production capacity prioritised their own populations before selling Covid-19 jabs to the continent.
Establishing a pooled procurement mechanism for pharmaceuticals would enable countries participating in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to aggregate volumes, improve competitiveness, and provide greater certainty of demand for drug manufacturers planning investments, said Aspen’s head of strategic trade Stavros Nicolaou. AfCFTA aims to progressively eliminate tariffs between participating countries, to grow intra-African trade.
A pooled procurement mechanism could be used for high-volume products such as childhood vaccines and HIV drugs, said Nicolaou.
“Africa has 68% of the world’s HIV [burden], yet imports in excess of 80% of the ARVs (antiretrovirals) needed for the continent,” he said on the sidelines of the three-day AfCFTA business forum meeting under way in Cape Town this week.
The Global Access to Vaccines Initiative (Gavi), which uses donor funding to purchase childhood vaccines on behalf of low-income countries, provided immediate relief to countries unable to fully fund their own immunisation programmes, but did not help to develop the technical know-how and skills required for domestic manufacturing, said Nicolaou.
Africa’s challenges in obtaining Covid-19 shots at the height of the pandemic prompted the AU to set up the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (Avatt). While the demand for Covid-19 vaccines did not meet Avatt’s expectations, negotiating large volumes had enabled Avatt to secure lower prices than individual governments could have done on their own, he said.
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