Drugs production holds untapped potential for Africa

A patient receives drugs at a medical centre in Lome, Togo. Africa manufactures less than two per cent of the medicines it consumes. Photo/FILE 

By CARLOS LOPES

Ever since the high tech generic drug production facility, Cinpharm-Cameroon, was set up, it is relatively easier for Cameroonians to have access to medicines.

Now a low wage earner can access a course of antibiotics at a lower price than a Kenyan counterpart.

According to the World Health Organisation, a seven-day course of treatment with ciprofloxacin could cost in Kenya close to a month’s wages.

 

Unfortunately, this scenario is not uncommon across Africa. In Uganda, it could cost about 11 days of a household income to purchase a single course of artemisinin-combination therapy used to treat malaria for an under five-year-old child.

Africa carries 25 per cent of the world’s disease burden but consumes less than one per cent of global health expenditure.

It manufactures less than two per cent of the medicines it consumes. Over 70 per cent of the world’s HIV/AIDS cases and 90 per cent of the deaths due to malaria currently occur in Africa.

In addition, the continent bears 50 per cent of the global deaths of under five children mainly due to neonatal causes as well as pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

The tragedy is that these diseases are treatable: most related deaths could be prevented with timely access to appropriate and affordable medicines.

Africa’s capacity for pharmaceutical research and design (R&D) and local drug production is amongst the lowest in the world. The problem of inadequate investments in this area, unfortunately, continues. Overall, 37 African countries have some pharmaceutical production, although only South Africa produces some active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Where there is local production in Africa, normally there is a reliance on imported active ingredients. As a result, the supply of African pharmaceuticals remains highly dependent on foreign funding and imports.

The pharmaceutical market in Africa is now 70 per cent imported. According to trade data, India alone accounted for 17.7 per cent of African pharmaceutical imports in 2011. Estimates further suggest that more than 80 per cent of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) across the continent are imported.

The poor access and affordability of medicines is compounded by factors that include long lead times for international orders; infrastructure gaps such as poor logistics and storage capacity, as well as high transport and distribution costs.

In addition, there have been scarce public finances and deficient public health procurement systems. It is estimated that there is scarcity of essential medicines both in the public and private sector. People are also often being forced to buy medicines that may not be certified.

Many African governments spend a disproportionate amount of their scarce resources on procuring medicines. For instance, in 2006, Mali and Burundi, spent 2.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent of their GDP on such imports.

Trends now indicate that new health challenges facing the continent will generate for their demands. Non-communicable diseases, like heart disease, lung disorders, diabetes and cancer, are rising due to demographic and lifestyle changes. These conditions will account for half the deaths in Africa, surpassing those provoked by infectious disease