Participants in a group picture after the opening ceremony
MINISTER OF Health and Chairperson of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) Conference of State Parties, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has encouraged member states which have not ratified the AMA Treaty to do so in order for the continent to realise its full benefits.
He said the ratification of the AMA, established to help increase access to essential medicines for Africans, should be the priority of African leaders.
“This mandate, if properly executed, will ultimately assist all our member states to achieve our targets for Universal Health Coverage (UHC),” he said.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu was at the third African Medicines Harmonisation (AMRH) week in Accra on the theme, “The African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation – A Foundation for the African Medicines Agency.”
He further noted that the experience gained from implementing the AMRH initiative must not go waste but serve as a catalyst to enhance activities of the African Medicines Agency (AMA), which he said would soon become operational.
He said, “This and other initiatives coupled with experiences gained during the response to COVID-19 will go a long way in ensuring a successful AMA.”
He reiterated his commitment to collaborating with the AMA Conference of State Parties, the African Union Commission (AUC), the Africa Union Development Agency New Partnership for Africa Development (AUDA-NEPAD), World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners who had been pivotal in the tremendous progress made to strengthen the continent’s health systems to ensure a stronger health system.
AMRH Week
The event focused on discussions with stakeholders on the coordination and collaboration needs in the medicines regulatory space across the African continent.
It brought together high-level African leaders, as well as partners in the African medicine space to also reflect on progress and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Delese Mimi Darko, in her remarks, indicated that the AMRH was an important platform established as a result of the pharmaceutical manufacturing plan for Africa to address “weak, outdated and fragmented regulatory systems on the continent.”
Explaining, she said the core mission of the AMRH was to facilitate and coordinate the harmonisation of medicines regulation with the desired outcome of increasing access to quality, safe, efficacious and affordable medicines across Africa.
She revealed that the FDA, Ghana, had acquired various accreditation which had placed it in the unique position of possessing the largest testing capacity “under one roof in Africa.”
As a regional centre for regulatory excellence, she said her outfit had since 2017 strengthened the capacity of more than 151 African regulators including 12 countries in medicine authorisation and registration, seven countries in pharmacovigilance and also 11 countries in clinical trial oversight, across the continent.
Ms. Darko expressed the hope that the capacity would be extended across the region in future, so that Africa’s response to pandemics and endemic diseases would be more robust.
BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri