On Saturday, the Rwandan government and the African Union Commission (AUC) signed an agreement to establish the first African Medicines Agency in Kigali.
Rwanda inked an agreement with the African Union on June 10 to host the African Medicines Agency’s headquarters in Kigali.
The deal comes only days after Rwandan officials announced their intention to host the AMA’s headquarters on their territory.
The African nations ratified the treaty creating the Agency in 2019, and it will go into effect in 2021.
Its establishment is part of the African Union’s effort to minimise the continent’s reliance on medicinal items imported from other nations. Africa imports 97% of its medicinal items.
The agency should regulate and harmonise the continent’s pharmaceutical industry, boost African manufacturing, and combat the trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
According to AU Commissioner for Health Minata Samaté Cessouma, Africa must prepare for further pandemics following Covid-19, and the agency’s goal will be to develop “African solutions.”
According to Rwandan Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana, this is a first step towards making this new African Union entity operational, more than four years after the treaty creating the African Medicines Agency was adopted in 2019.
Staff recruitment will be debated in Kigali in ten days during the second extraordinary session of the 23 states that have ratified the treaty creating the agency.
