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February 8, 2024
The EU will step up its efforts on physical care and vaccine production in Africa to ensure the continent can respond to long-term physical emergencies, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Monday (5 February).
At a joint press conference with senior officials from the African Union and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa, Kyriakides told reporters that the EU was committed to “complete African health sovereignty. “
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Belgian development minister Caroline Gennez, whose government currently holds the six month rotating EU presidency, said that “promising” steps were being taken on production of vaccines and medical technology.
However, the Belgian minister conceded that the two sides had also looked “at ways that we have let each other down in the past,” and that African ministers had complained of having been “left behind” during the pandemic.
He is referring to the widespread frustration of African leaders over the way the EU procured millions of surplus Covid vaccines and then belatedly distributed them to African states, leading to accusations of “vaccine nationalism”. This situation was further exacerbated by the EU’s opposition to waiving patent coverage. about vaccines.
Trust has been “somewhat shaken as a result of the pandemic, but I hope that our African colleagues will continue to believe that we are sincere,” Gennez said.
Since the EU-Africa summit in March 2022, €1. 3 billion has been mobilized for vaccine production across Africa, Kyriakides said, adding that lately there are more than just projects supporting the Africa CDC and the African Agency for Medicines.
The EU has also pledged money to fund three vaccine hubs in Africa, which could eventually be converted into pharmaceutical production facilities.
“Health is a policy area where cooperation and knowledge-sharing provide benefits for all. We can only be healthy here in Europe if Africa is also healthy. African countries have great experience in containing new epidemics, and Europe with the best and most accessible healthcare in the world,” said Gennez.
Only three percent of all medicines and vaccines are produced on the African continent, even though it represents 11 percent of the world’s population.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency announced that it had introduced a €10 million program for the new African Medicines Agency, created through the AU as a component of its plans to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area . The new trade bloc, which has been ratified by 54 African states and aims to eliminate tariff and customs barriers across the continent.
The EU will also host a summit with the AU on global health on 20 March.
The African pharmaceutical sector has been frustrated by its inability to achieve economies of scale in production to compete with giant Indian and Chinese producers. African Union officials hope that WADA will help harmonize medical regulations across the continent and, in particular, speed up the procedure for registering medicines. and vaccines.
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