The ECDPM, founded in 1986, defines itself as “a leading independent ‘think and do tank’ that wants to make policies in Europe and Africa work for inclusive and sustainable development”.
“Our goal at the ECDPM is to provide an understanding of how European Union development partners – including financial institutions for development – can engage at the regional level to contribute to the sustainable development of the pharmaceutical sector in Africa,” said Karaki in a presentation entitled “Regional pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs in Africa: Moving from Words to Action”.
Most African countries, he noted, were too small in terms of economies of scale. To make these developments viable, therefore, it would be important to establish how institutions such as the ECDPM and partners could consolidate their efforts to support these countries in the development of their own pharmaceutical hubs.
“Firstly, there would need to be a comprehensive approach that goes beyond simply investing in productive capacities, and secondly, as already mentioned, a regional approach in addition and complimentary to national interventions.” Ideally, Karaki indicated, this would include co-ordination between those African countries seeking to achieve these goals.
“However, based on ECDPM work on regional integration and industrialisation, we expect these approaches to face a wide range of challenges when put into practice.”
Among these challenges, in addition to co-ordination at all levels, would be market dynamics, access to technology, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and the state of existing health systems known to be under equipped with limited financial capacities forcing for the most part, out-of-pocket expenses among their populations.
After dealing with specific areas that needed to be addressed in terms of co-ordination, market dynamics, access to technology, and importantly trade and regional integration, Karaki concluded with the following supporting institution recommendations to address current health system issues in most African countries:
· Provide technical and financial budget support to increase public spending in the health sector, enabling African countries to effectively equip their health systems
· Support the pharma private sector including SME’s, with a view to help them provide affordable health/pharma products and services and close the gaps left by the public sector
· Support the adoption of universal health insurance to help low–income earners, especially women and the vulnerable, to access health services.