Abstract

Local Drug Manufacturing in Africa Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

Paul Watts, Distinguished Professor and Research Chair, Nelson Mandela University

While Africa has a variety of companies that formulate medicines it has very little active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing, with the consequence that these need to be imported. This results in increased drug costs, making medications unaffordable to most patients in Africa. Economic, social and political stresses have been witnessed all over the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, drug shortages and inaccessibility is one of the many results of disruption of supply chains due to the shutdown of manufacturing activity, as well as export restrictions and bans by other countries. To this effect, we are working on developing local drug manufacturing capacity in Africa using continuous flow technology, with the goal of lowering the cost of drugs, improving drug accessibility and ultimately improving Africa’s health. A selection of examples will be presented.