Africa CDC partners with Unitaid to boost local health product manufacturing

ETHIOPIA—The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Unitaid have recently established a strategic partnership aimed at boosting the production of essential health products within Africa.

This collaboration seeks to enhance sustainable access to medicines, diagnostics, and medical oxygen across the continent.

The agreement was signed during the 78th World Health Assembly, underscoring the importance of expanding regional manufacturing as a key factor in strengthening Africa’s health security and autonomy.

Africa faces a significant health challenge, bearing 25% of the global disease burden while relying heavily on imports for its medical needs.

The continent imports over 95% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients and 70% of the medicines it consumes.

Despite a population of 1.1 billion, Africa has only about 600 health product manufacturing sites, a stark contrast to approximately 10,000 in India and 5,000 in China.

This gap highlights the urgent need to develop local manufacturing capabilities to reduce dependency and improve health outcomes.

To address these challenges, the partnership will support the regional production of vital medical products such as diagnostics, therapeutics, and oxygen.

It will also focus on building capacity to produce priority health products and scaling up innovative technologies, including those developed within Africa.

The initiative targets key health priorities including HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, cervical cancer, sexually transmitted infections, and other diseases, with particular attention to conditions affecting women and children.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC, emphasized that this partnership aligns with Africa’s vision to develop and manufacture health products needed across the continent, thereby building a resilient health future.

He noted that working with Unitaid allows them to leverage African expertise, expand manufacturing capacity regionally, and ensure essential health products are produced reliably, affordably, and closer to the communities that need them most.

The collaboration also aims to overcome regulatory, financial, and market barriers that currently hinder local production.

 By doing so, it seeks to improve pandemic preparedness through the development and availability of health tools designed, produced, and distributed within Africa.

 This approach is expected to reduce supply chain risks and enable faster, more equitable access to life-saving products.

Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, highlighted the shared goal of reinforcing Africa’s capacity to sustainably respond to endemic diseases and regional health challenges.

He added that expanding regional production not only mitigates supply chain vulnerabilities but also supports industry development within Africa.

The partnership will be guided by a joint action plan with regular progress reviews to maintain momentum and accountability.

Key areas of collaboration include fostering innovation in diagnostics, treatments, and medical technologies; strengthening regulatory and procurement pathways for locally made health products; expanding access to medical oxygen; enhancing pandemic preparedness and response; and advocating for African-led solutions at both regional and global levels.

Sign up HERE to receive our email newsletters with the latest news and insights from Africa and beyond. Also, follow us on our WhatsApp channel for updates.