Kenya leads push for stronger regulation of medicines, vaccines in Africa
Dr John Munyu urged African countries to collaborate more closely in medical products regulation and increase local manufacturing to reduce reliance on imports.
Kenya has called on African countries to strengthen the regulation of medical products and boost local manufacturing, warning that over 90 per cent of medicines and less than one per cent of vaccines consumed on the continent are imported.
Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board(PPB) Chair, Dr John Munyu, said this dependence leaves Africa highly vulnerable to health crises, citing COVID-19 and the 2024 mpox outbreak, declared a public health emergency of continental security by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), as stark examples.
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Munyu made the remarks during the Seventh Biennial Scientific Conference on Medical Products Regulation in Africa (SCoMRA VII) in Mombasa, which focused on “Regulatory Harmonisation: Unlocking Africa’s Potential in Health Product Manufacturing and Trade”.
“Africa imports over 90 per cent of its medicines and produces less than one per cent of its vaccines. This is not just a statistic; it reflects our dependence and vulnerability, which the COVID-19 pandemic painfully exposed,” he said.
He urged African countries to collaborate more closely in medical products regulation and increase local manufacturing to reduce reliance on imports.
Highlighting progress through the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) programme, Munyu said the past decade has seen regulatory guidelines aligned, reliance mechanisms introduced, and digital tools implemented across the continent. These initiatives have paved the way for the operationalisation of the African Medicines Agency (AMA), headquartered in Kigali,
Rwanda, which he described as a symbol of Africa’s shared vision for resilience and self-reliance in health.
“Our objectives are clear, our potential immense, and our collective resolve remains key to unlocking it,” Munyu said, welcoming delegates to three days of high-level discussions.
Kenya, he added, has played a leading role in regional and continental harmonisation efforts, with PPB officers holding key positions in African regulatory forums.
The PPB Chair said discussions over the next three days will focus on strengthening regulatory oversight to attract manufacturing investment, advancing pooled procurement, harnessing innovation and artificial intelligence, and deepening partnerships between governments, industry, researchers and civil society.
“SCoMRA VII is not merely a conference; it is a strategic platform to make this vision real - to catalyse local manufacturing, support intra-African trade under African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and ensure that quality, safe and effective medical products reach every African,” he said.
He concluded by emphasising Africa’s potential and the need for collective action to ensure quality, safe, and effective medical products reach every African.
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