Deep assessment on Eritrea’s stature in cementing pharmaceutical sector of Africa

Deep assessment on Eritrea’s stature in cementing pharmaceutical sector of Africa

By Yosief Abraham Z

In an effort to establish African Medicines Agency thereby to escalate African pharmaceutical regulatory laws and qualities, Eritrea’s panoptic experiences are under deep assessments. Taking the pragmatic chronicles of Azel Pharmaceuticals and Eritrea Pharmaceuticals Corporation into account, Eritrea’s success in alerting African countries against fraud medicinal supplies, has been vital to the current initiatives thus to wage war on phony produces.

Affirmed that Pharma sector value is expected to reach $45bn by 2020 and is growing at between 6% and 11% per annum in Africa, as China and India are only fuelling the supplies, the new initiative calls on African countries to shift in encouraging the ‘Made in Africa’ efforts. Acknowledged that in Morocco’s Cooper Pharma signed a deal to build a plant to make antibiotics in the Kigali Special Economic Zone in Rwanda, Eritrea’s experience of self-fulfilling efforts during the revolutionary struggle also commended.

Though South Africa’s and Nigeria, preceded by Eritrea, are using their procurement budgets to help local manufacturers, the new African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) program –being overseen by the African Union (AU) and managed by the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development out of South Africa—accentuate of challenges by locals in responding to local demands. Eritrea and Nigeria are therefore, among the countries that advocate for dominant local production, a scheme to ensure qualities of pharmaceutical supplies and to fight counterfeits and products of uncertain origin.

Specified that counterfeit medicinal provisions have been complex quagmires in North and West Africa dominantly, Eritrea’s victory in the health sector is a good lesson to Africa, a continent that represents around 11% of the world’s population and yet estimates to harbor about a quarter of the global disease burden. Unfortunately, the pharma spend still only represents 2% of the global market.

The report even further emphasized that challenges related to quality, price and red tape leave consumers short-changed and local manufacturers struggling to compete with large-scale foreign producers, particularly from China and India. “Eritrea’s chronicles between 1994-2011 are inspiring, particularly on how African countries have to address highly priced drugs and banning any informal sector that engages in supplying medicines and related supplies,” the report concludes.

It is known that Eritrea’s underground hospital in Orotta and its affiliate branches are one of the wonders of African inspiring health infrastructure system. Built by the revolutionary fighters during the struggle for independence, documents affirm of the ‘miraculous’ performances of surgical and other operations back then.

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Yosief Abraham Z is current Executive Director of HorMid Media and Art Center. For any comments, criticisms and questions, you can contact him at josiabraham29@gmail.com

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