With more than half of the people on the African continent not having access to basic essential medicines according to the World Health Organization resulting in an estimated one million deaths, the challenge of poor access to medicines will not be solved by one government or a single organization alone. There is only so much that any single organization can do and that is why partnership is so important. Pharma cannot simply reduce its contribution to the provision of medicines but need to care about the benefits to society at large. Pharmaceutical companies are a key partner in solving the challenge of access to reach more people so that innovations are not just sitting on the shelf. Beyond making medicines, society expects pharma companies to have a clear access agenda so that it is innovating for the many not only the few. The private sector need to make sure that innovation reaches patients. It need to go beyond the transactional approach and take a keen interest in how medicines are being used in order to deliver the greatest value to society.

#africa #health #clinicaltrials #decentralisedclinicaltrials #healthcare #globalhealth #medicines #vaccines #ama #africanmedicinesagency #ema #europeanmedicinesagency

The coming year in 2024 is going to be an exciting one according to Chimwemwe Chamdimba, the head of the Africa Regulatory Harmonization Initiative at AUDA NEPAD. Listen to find out why this is an exciting year for the African Medicines Agency. In this podcast, Chimwemwe explains what to expect in the coming months and key initiative that are on the horizon for the African Medicines agency. She explains where development are with the board of directors, and terms of reference for recruiting the Director General of the African Medicines Agency. Listen for more.

#africa #health #clinicaltrials #decentralisedclinicaltrials #healthcare #globalhealth #medicines #vaccines

14 March 2023 | Lenias Hwenda talks about rare diseases in Africa with Kelly du Plessis, the CEO of Rare Diseases South Africa. Rare diseases remain poorly understood by health authorities and yet they are increasingly affecting African populations. Kelly du Plessis explains some of the challenges with rare diseases in Africa and how her organisation, Rare Diseases South Africa has been solving these challenges in South Africa.

Have you ever wondered why foreign aid has persisted for so long? Dr Olusoji Adeyi, the President of Reilient Health Systems and a former Director at The World Bank explains the nuances of foreign aid and why it is counter-productive. Foreign aid has persisted in order to support a foreign aid industrial complex that has been built around aid. This complex is sustained for the benefit of those around it - the external contractors who's business is to but products for distribution in African countries. In fact most of the time bilateral aid is not fundamentally aimed at Africans. According to Dr Adeyi, African countries would be best served by creating a plan to transition out of receiving aid for routine healthcare needs by 2030.

31 Aug 2021 | Lenias Hwenda | Utano Podcast | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | The size of Africa´s cancer burden and what governments should do about it 

To celebrate International Women’s Month, we are hosting a Live Podcast to explore explores  the personal and professional experiences of high level professional African women working in global health. Recently, there have been growing calls amongst global health academics to decolonize global health in the leading medical journals like The Lancet and the British Medical Journal. The decolonization campaign seeks to fight against systems of dominance and power in the global health community of those working to improve the health of populations worldwide. Global health has its origins in the colonial era when it was a means to control colonized populations and make exploitation by colonial powers easier. However, today, the same power imbalances persist amongst many organizations and individuals working in global health, most of whom preserve and perpetuate the same power imbalances that they profess their work seeks to correct. This is reflected in the extractive nature of relationships between nations and individuals in global health and the perpetual failure of most recipient countries to improve their development capacity after decades of receiving capacity develop support by donor partners. It is against the very purpose of global health organisations to develop the kind of capacity development that would make countries less dependent on donor support. This is clear in the fact that they typically concentrate resources, expertise and data amongst other things in institutions of high-income countries. These power imbalances in global health are not necessarily confined to the wealthier nations. They can also be found in institutions of poorer nations where there is a small cadre of professionals who benefit from the status quo.

22 Feb 2022 | Lenias Hwenda | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | NTD Series This is how Egypt, Togo and Malawi achieved lymphatic filariasis elimination  | Dr Didier Bakajika | WHO Technical Officer for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Lymphatic Filariasis and Onchocerciasis)  Dr Didier Bakajika talks to us about the challenge of lymphatic filariasis prevention and control and how countries like Egypt, Malawi and Togo that managed to achieve eliminated reached this milestone. He also explains the importance of data and how the WHO ESPEN programme is supporting countries to enable systematic data collection in order to enhance the effectiveness of prevention and control programs. Overall, there is progress but there are a number of things that Dr Bakajika says that countries need to do to accelerate our progress towards elimination.  

#Africa #health #ntds #beatntds #endtheneglect #Togo #malawi #egypt #WHO #infectiousdiseases

#ntds #endtheneglect #neglectednotrare

11 Feb 2022 | This is a big public health problem you have heard of - #snakebite and #rabies. They kill ten of thousands of people every year due to limited availability of antivenom and, rabies vaccine and immunoglobulins. Many victims live far away from health facilities and those who are luck enough to get to one often find that either the treatments they need are not available. This public health crisis is underpinned by limited global production of antivenin, immunoglobulins and rabies vaccine. Sanofi used to make an antivenin against 10 of Africa´s most poisonous snakes but stopped manufacturing it in 2014 because of uncertain demand which affected profitability. Listen to Dr Anderson Chimusoro, WHO National Advisor to the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe on NTDs a dn malaria discussing the challenge of snakebite and rabies in Zimbabwe and on the continent.   

#africa #health #publichealth #snakebite #rabies #vaccination #manufacturing