Phillip Mwebaza
RWANDA – Rwanda has been awarded a significant contract to host the African Medicines Agency’s (AMA) headquarters. This will improve Africa’s access to high-quality medical products by enhancing state parties’ and RECs’ capabilities to regulate medical products.
To ensure that people on the continent have access to high-quality, safe, and effective pharmaceuticals, medical commodities, and technologies, the African Union’s proposed AMA specialized agency is intended to make it simpler to unify regulatory requirements in the continent’s pharmaceutical markets.
Eight nations were formally introduced as competitors to host the continental regulatory agency during the earlier First Ordinary Session of the Conference of the States Parties (COSP) to the African Medicines Agency Treaty in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
The eight African Union member countries that were selected as the finalist candidates to host the African Medicines Agency’s permanent headquarters were: Zimbabwe, Uganda, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
When Rwanda was chosen to host the African Medicines Agency’s headquarters during the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union, which took place in Lusaka, Zambia between July 14 and July 15, 2022, all eyes were on the country.
The African Union Executive Council selected Rwanda to host the headquarters of the African Medicines Agency, which will be the organization’s second specialist health agency after the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The chair of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, urged all partners and members to assist the African Union and its Africa CDC in putting into practice and ensuring the health security outlined in Africa’s New Public Health Order.
The New Public Health Order is based on five key principles, including bolstering international and domestic organizations that support public health, particularly the Africa CDC and the Africa Medicines Agency at the regional scale.
The public health order also emphasizes building Africa’s public health workforce, which entails educating the appropriate specialists in sufficient numbers and deploying them where they are most needed at the national and continental levels.
Africa’s New Public Health Order emphasizes the significance of locally manufacturing all healthcare products required in the area, including vaccinations, medicines, and diagnostics, to protect Africa’s supply chains for life-saving supplies.
Other goals include forming partnerships that are action-oriented and considerate of African concerns, as well as mobilizing local resources including personnel, technology, and money to ensure that Africa can react more quickly to any disease risks.
To help the continent fight against health crises, the African Medicines Agency will promote pharmaceutical knowledge exchange across African nations and increase patient access to efficient, secure, and high-quality medicines.
What you need to know about the African Medicines Agency
The African Medicines Agency (AMA) Treaty was adopted by Heads of State and Government during the Assembly’s 32nd Ordinary Session on February 11th, 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The African Medicines Agency intends to strengthen the ability of State Parties and AU-recognized Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to regulate medical goods to increase access to quality, safe, and effective medical products throughout the continent. AMA will expand on the work of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) program (2009), which is led by the Africa Union Development Agency – the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD).