Rwanda is drawing attention on the pharmaceutical front and fast becoming a focal point of African efforts to strengthen regulatory harmonisation, improve access to and affordability of medicines, and build up sustainable domestic manufacturing capacity for drugs and vaccines.
Although, Africa still largely depends on international supply chains for its medicines and vaccines, concerted efforts are being made to increase the local availability of essential medicines and to enhance the health systems resilience on the continent, particularly considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
In line with this quest, the Rwandan Government has a vision to transform the country into a regional hub for pharmaceutical production and vaccine manufacturing and distribution into the African region. In recent years, it has strategically positioned Rwanda as a key player in medicines and vaccines manufacturing technology on the continent.
Recent achievements in Rwanda’s pharma sector
Over the years, Rwanda has made significant progress towards strengthening its pharmaceutical sector. In 2018, Rwanda enacted a law establishing the Rwanda Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has a clear mandate to protect public health by regulating human and veterinary medicines, vaccines, and medical devices.
The African Development Bank in June 2022 approved the establishment of an African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) in Rwanda to help strengthen Africa’s pharmaceutical industry and its manufacturing and healthcare infrastructure. Also in June, the European Union announced the partnership between Rwanda and several EU member state regulatory agencies. This announcement was followed by a ground-breaking ceremony for the continent’s first mRNA vaccines plant to be built by the German company, BioNTech, in Kigali.
In July 2022, the African Union’s Executive Council approved Rwanda to host the headquarters and secretariat of the African Medicines Agency (AMA), which intends to harmonise regulatory systems for pharmaceutical products across Africa.
In July 2022, Bloom Public Health, an indigenous public health think tank company in Africa, also began plans for the establishment of an African Pharmaceutical Academy (APA) in Rwanda to strengthen the workforce capacity of Africa’s pharma industry.
The APTF, AMA, and APA will support the local pharmaceutical industry on the continent and increase the capacity of Africa’s pharma sector to compete globally.
The AMA: regulatory harmonisation and collaboration
The African Medicines Agency (AMA) will be the second Africa-wide health agency after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The AMA will play a coordinating role in promoting regulatory harmonisation and collaboration among the different countries and regional regulatory bodies across Africa.
Among other functions, the AMA will provide clear, efficient, science-based regulatory pathways that will encourage pharmaceutical companies to pursue approvals of medical products, by reducing the time, money, and effort required to register the same medical product in different countries. Thus, improving access to safe, effective and quality medical products, quick licensing of vaccines in health emergencies, and better preparedness for future pandemics.
Rwanda was chosen from a shortlist of eight countries announced in June during the first ordinary session of the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP) to the AMA, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The APTF: manufacturing technology transfer
The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, also to be established in Rwanda, is an innovative institution that will strengthen Africa’s access to the technologies that support the manufacturing of medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products.
The APTF, apart from providing funding, will serve as a transparent intermediator, advancing and brokering the interests of Africa’s pharma sector with global pharmaceutical companies to share IP-protected technologies, know-how, and patented processes. This provides an enormous opportunity for pharma manufacturers in Rwanda and across Africa. The APTF is a major step towards self-sufficiency in medicine manufacturing on the continent.
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The APA: strengthening Africa’s pharma workforce
Bloom Public Health has embarked on a continent-wide intervention – the establishment of an African Pharmaceutical Academy. This will be the third strong continental pharmaceutical support system in Rwanda. The APA will address the paucity of workforce with the special skills and know-how needed to build competence in Africa’s pharma industry by delivering training to recent graduates in sub-Saharan Africa.
The academy will cover factory design, quality assurance and quality control, pharmacovigilance, regulatory sciences, pharmaceutical production, microbiology, pharma engineering for qualification of equipment, and preventive maintenance and calibration of equipment, amongst others.
Training fresh graduates to prepare them for the industry will create a large pipeline of an employable workforce that will serve the industry sustainably. As the host country, the pharma industry in Rwanda (and across Africa) will benefit from tapping into a ready skilled workforce that will be productive immediately and obviate the need for enormous investment in training newly hired graduates who may not stay after they have received training.
Bloom Public Health, through its office in Rwanda, is actively partnering with renowned institutions and organisations across the world to establish this massive workforce development initiative.
Conclusion
A relatively small country with a clear vision, Rwanda, is an engine that is driving Africa’s pharma industry forward. This is a clear show of leadership. With continuous improvement on recent achievements, Rwanda is set to become the pharmaceutical hub in Africa and Bloom Public Health Rwanda is well positioned to play its part in achieving this goal.
Anyakora is the CEO of Bloom Public Health and a public health expert & Odibeli is a pharmacist and the regional communications manager at Bloom Public Health
