The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of international cooperation. Health challenges and crises have no borders. Promoting the consultation, development and implementation of a common strategy among African countries, the African Medicines Agency will provide an essential technical support in the prevention and the fight against emerging diseases.
Moreover, it represents, for many countries, the promise of the development of local production, and the development, across the continent, of centers of excellence for research, the strengthening and security of supply chains, for the maintenance of a healthy environment and the fight against falsified medicines.
While the functions and status of the Agency are now clearly defined, a common vision and strategy remain to be built that will give it its impetus and enable it to outline the first lines of work.
It is in this framework, and at the initiative of the Special Envoy of the African Union for the African Medicines Agency, Mr. Michel Sidibé, that IFPMA, LEEM and IAPO organized on 22 June 2021 a roundtable bringing together African Ministers of Health and high-level representatives of various stakeholders, namely international organizations, patient associations, and the pharmaceutical industry.