NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

To ensure affordability, safe, quality and efficacious medicines on the African continent, the West Africa Medicines Registration Harmonization Project and Steering Committee of African Union Model Law, has been launched in Accra.

Dr Kweku Agyeman-Mensah, Minister of Health, said the project would help fast track the registration of good quality medicines in member states to treat priority diseases and strengthen local the pharmaceutical industry, develop regional anti-counterfeiting strategies and strengthen quality control laboratories.

The Health Minister noted that lack of clear policies, legal and regulatory frameworks for regulating medicines in many countries hindered efforts in improving medicines regulations in Africa.

He also expressed concern about the free movement of pharmaceuticals leading to numerous challenges in the pharmaceutical sector, including easy access to Sub-standard and counterfeit medicines.

The Minister stated: “The National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) cannot take their rightful place when the legal provisions establishing them are weak and do not address current issues regarding medicine and other health commodity regulation, and there is the need to have the legal basis of the agencies so that the scope of activities of the NMRAs will be covered under the legal provisions”.

In all 15, countries are participating in the four-day meeting under the auspices of World Health Organisation (WAHO), ECOWAS and NEPAD.