Large-scale production of antibiotics within East African region received a boost following an endorsement of a regional policy framework by East African Community ministers.
- The framework introduces incentives that address current bottlenecks in local antibiotic production.
- The cooperation mechanism facilitates regular updates on essential antibiotics facing shortages, supply interruptions, excessive pricing, and other challenges.
- Antibiotics are essential due to concerns over antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which occurs when microbes evolve to the point where antibiotics are no longer effective.
Estimates show that in 2019 alone, about 4.95 million deaths were associated with AMR and more than 1 million people died due to antibiotic resistance. By 2050, the death toll could rise to 10 million deaths per year.
Lack of access to antibiotics is acute in developing nations, especially in least developed countries, where antibiotics are often not even registered by pharmaceutical companies with national regulatory bodies, preventing entirely their access.
Since 2019, the EAC Secretariat has collaborated with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to develop and support the implementation of critical policy documents.
“The framework introduces incentives that address current bottlenecks in local antibiotic production, while the cooperation mechanism facilitates regular updates on essential antibiotics facing shortages, supply interruptions, excessive pricing, and other challenges,” Jean Baptiste Havugimana, the Director of Productive Sectors at the EAC Secretariat said.
While highlighting the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in the region, Dr. Juma Mukhwana, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Industry in the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry, emphasised the urgent need for EAC Partner States to implement policy incentives to attract investments, considering the region’s heavy reliance on imported medicines.
“This milestone marks a significant stride towards strengthening the regional capacity for antibiotics production and supply, with potential far-reaching impacts on public health and economic resilience within the East African Community,” he said.
Bruno Casella, UNCTAD’s Senior Economist and Chief of the Intellectual Property Unit commended the project’s success and emphasized its alignment with UNCTAD’s strategic focus on global research and policy work in pharmaceutical local production and regionalism.
- The implementation of the EAC Regional Policy Framework and Cooperation Mechanism will necessitate a multisectoral approach, bridging health, trade, industry, and investment.
- Existing implementation structures at both regional and national levels will be leveraged, but capacity enhancement will be a crucial component of the policy implementation process.
- The implementation will also require policy and regulatory changes, the introduction of new practices, and rigorous monitoring and reporting.
Appropriate Access to Antibiotics
The development comes on the backdrop of three advisory reports released last year by spelling out how pharmaceutical companies, governments and procurers can ensure appropriate access to antibiotics in East Africa. The three reports provide analysis and policy recommendations on how each country can boost local production capacity.
The reports call on each country to enhance sector-wide incentive system through product-specific incentives. According to the reports, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda have put in place relevant policies, strategies and investment incentives to promote pharmaceutical production in the region.
But none of them has specific incentives to promote antibiotic production. Given the specific threats related to the risks of infections and AMR, this would be a desirable development.
- The reports emphasize the regional approach to reduce costs and expand markets.
- The long-term sustainability of the business model for local production of antibiotics depends on the possibility to scale volumes and leverage economies of scale.
- Regional integration can be highly instrumental to achieve this by expanding markets and reducing production costs.
It can help build regional value chains, facilitate specialization and business-to-business linkages, with benefits for all participant countries. Pharma-focused special economic zones to generate efficiencies and create clusters of local small and medium enterprises are important parts of the policy menu.
The reports also call for support to the contribution of multinational enterprises through the promotion of foreign direct investment (FDI). This contribution is key to the promotion of local pharmaceutical production.
Local pharmaceutical manufacturers, including of antibiotics, require several inputs from abroad – including raw materials, factors of production, know-how and technology – which multinationals are well positioned to access.
Government policies aimed at boosting local production of antibiotics should prioritize FDI promotion. Prospects of market expansion through regional integration may also be a driver for multinationals’ investment decisions.
