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Technology transfer deals are quietly doing the heavy lifting in local pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa. Will they translate into industrial independence?
Treezer Michelle Atieno - Editor
Technology transfer agreements are becoming the primary mechanism to build pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Africa. The latest deal is a Kenya-Egypt agreement for Egypt to transfer pharmaceutical technology covering financing, product knowledge, regulatory registration systems and workforce skills development.
This follows a similar deal for Kenya in February, where BioVax Institute joined the World Health Organization technology transfer programme to build local vaccine manufacturing capacity, among other active deals across the continent.
With Africa set to meet 60% of its health-product demand through local manufacturing by 2040, these arrangements are opening access to higher-value segments of the pharmaceutical industry, like formulation, at a lower cost.
Our take: Technology transfer is lowering the entry barrier into pharmaceutical manufacturing which is capital-intensive…Read more (2 min)
Niger is the site of Africa’s first Climate-Health Desk. Sandrine Wendlasida-Combéré, the head of the hub, and Hunter Jones, the Global Lead for Climate Services for Health at the WHO–WMO Joint Office, explain how the hub converts climate data into practical health planning tools for health systems and pharmaceuticals.
"Traditional health surveillance gives us a foundation, tracking cases as they come in. But by integrating climate data and weather forecasts, we can start to see what might be coming," says Jones.
The desk works with ministries of health and meteorological services to co-produce climate–health tools, including early warnings and decision-support products for the health sector.
Read the full Q&A…Read more (2 min)
The largest funding for health technology startups in April went to developing disease diagnostics for underserved communities, with a major focus on AI-powered TB diagnostics. A total of three companies, Reme-D, AI Diagnostics and Biovana, raised $5.9 million in funding with $5.7 million invested in disease diagnostics production.
AI Diagnostics raised $5.2 million, the highest funding in this round, to develop AI-powered TB diagnostics that enable frontline screening without specialist equipment.
Reme-D followed with a $0.5 million to develop and manufacture disease diagnostic testing systems that are suited for use in low resource settings. Biovana raised $0.2 million to support its health data system.
Our take: The value of investing in AI-powered TB diagnostics lies in cutting diagnostic delays and enabling earlier intervention…Read more (2 min)
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SFA
New study finds only 3.9% of the global clinical trials are conducted exclusively in Africa
Events
🗓️ Register for the Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum in Ghana (May 8)
🗓️ Participate in World Conference on Medical Ethics in Lesotho (May 16)
🗓️ Join the 10th Healthcare Innovation Summit Africa in SA (May 27)
Jobs
🧑⚕️Be the Health Professional Education Specialist at Amref (Tanzania)
🧑⚕️Apply to be the Emergency Care Officer for WHO (Rwanda)
🧑⚕️Join Save the Children as a Health and Nutrition Coordinator (Madagascar)
Various
💉 AI clinical platform Heidi launches in South Africa
💉 Three dead in suspected hantavirus outbreak on South Africa
💉 African leaders declare end of health aid era at the World Health Summit
Seen on LinkedIn
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General at World Health Organization, says, “We’re very close to a new breakthrough in science. Clinical trials for new TB vaccines remain on track, and will deliver efficacy results within the next two years showing how well the vaccines work. TB is still the world’s deadliest infectious disease, yet no new vaccine has been approved in over 100 years.”