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. We need medicines that are fit-for-purpose in resource contrained settings to allow us to better utilize those solutions when resources are limited. There are challenges with deploying innovation in the best interest of patients which leads patients be diagnosed in the community way too late when they may no longer quality for disease modifying therapy thereby worsening health outcomes. So we need to find areas in the health systems where we can work together in order to reduce those barriers. It the past it has taken 10 years for innovation to reach African patients after it was available in Europe on the US. It is possible to eliminate this gap to a zero time gap as was recently done with a product that was approved by the Food and Drugs Authority,Ghana and the Swiss regulator Swissmedic within the same time frame. We need an ecosystem that makes it possible for African innovation to be more visible and to thrive. There are some exceptionally bright people who can drive innovation in Africa for Africa and for the world. The sickle cell gene therapy that Novartis is working on in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one example of that. I am optimistic that over the next decade we will see things like this happening.
#africa #health #clinicaltrials #decentralisedclinicaltrials #healthcare #globalhealth #medicines #vaccines #ama #africanmedicinesagency #ema #europeanmedicinesagency 30 October 2023 | Lenias Hwenda | The African Medicines Agency - what comes next | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Chimwemwe Chamdimba
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 27 April 2023 | Lenias Hwenda | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Craig Lipset. In this conversation, Craig Lipset discusses with Lenias Hwenda how decentralised clinical trials are being increasingly used in clinical research in Europe and the US and how they can help to expand diversity and reach during clinical trials if clinical investigators are intentional about design. A clinical trial is a series of research studies that test new treatments before they are approved for people to use. Before national medicines regulators can approve a new treatment for use in people, clinical trial results must show that the treatment works and does not cause harm to people. One of the challenges with clinical trials is that racial and ethnic minorities are generally significantly under-represented. Too few clinical trials are done in African countries, and the decentralised approach offers an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges that limits reach and diversity. Craig explains why the increasingly important decentralised clinical trial approach complements the traditional approach over the next decade and what sponsors, investigators and clinical sites should think about to increase diversity in clinical research including in the African context. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegcj4FoxgVoogCiXGySvpg Follow Let's Talk about Health in Africa on social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/utanopodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275438384523782 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meds4Africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meds4africa/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medicinesforafrica/ Website: www.medicines4africa.com
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
04 February 2022 | South Africa has been offered a lot of vaccines, that it has turned down which has made donors very unhappy. "I don't think donors always understand that the logistics of each vaccine is different. Countries need time to gear up, so you can't have a shelf life of a month or two months to distribute a vaccine and get the cold chain properly in place, to be able to be responsible about the way you procure needles and syringes and to vaccinate people. It's not something you organise over a weekend." Dr Nicholas Crisp the Deputy Director General of National Health Insurance and the National Coordinator for Cvid-19 vaccination in South Africa explaining whether African countries should accept vaccines that are close to expiry which in turn generates negative press about their failure to utilise vaccines.
#africa #health #medicine #healthinsurance #logistics #southafrica
28 January 2022 | What should African countries and the African Medicines Agency be doing to change a harmful dynamic driven largely by perceptions of the risks by sponsors and African people? African people think they are unethically targeted for clinical trials whilst sponsors of clinical trials fear that the risks of doing trials in African countries are much too high. If you consider that the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (#MHRA) and the European Medicines Agency (#EMA) are both actively trying to increase their attractiveness and the number of clinical trials done within their borders then Africa certainly needs to do more to improve it's #clinicalresearch environment. #Pharmaceutical industry leaders have been lamenting the lack of #diversity in clinical trials and the need to address it. So how do you sort out the challenges, both real and perceived, in order to increase buy-in as well as diversity and inclusion in clinical trials and in #globalhealth? Listen to this in-depth conversation with the Executive Director of the European and Development Countries Clinical Trials Partnership which is investing millions to strengthen the ability of the African clinical research environment to truly serve the needs of the African patient. #health #africa #clinicaltrials #clinicaltrialdiversity #AfricanMedicinesAgency #EDCTP #AVAREF
21 January 2022 | According to Dr Mwinzi Pauline, the technical officer for #ntds at World Health Organization Africa office, countries in #africa lost significant gains made in #schistosomiasis control due to the #Covid19 pandemic. We can prevent further erosion of these gains by stepping up investment in tackling #schistosomiasis and other #ntds . Some of the actions needed include collecting more accurate data, deepening engagement with communities and stepping up disease control and elimination efforts that are data driven and more targeted. Eliminating diseases of poverty is the best way to break the vicious cycle of poverty for communities around the world. It would enable children not to miss out on education and adults to work and earn a living.
30 December 2021 | Imagine a disease that affects 60 million people, with only 3 treatments, one of which kills 5% of the patients, and administration can only be done in hospital. Dr Philippe Neau and his colleagues in Sanofi, NGOs, WHO and governments are working to change the paradigm of treating sleeping sickness to improve the available treatments by bringing oral medicines that can be easily taken at community health facilities, with shorter courses without requirement for a lumbar puncture that can only be done in a hospital setting. Products with a better safety and efficacy profiles will also enable the prophalactic treatment and treatment of suspected cases which will help to eliminate the remaining reservoirs of the tsetse fly parasite that causes sleeping sickness. Sanofi product development has been working with communities to conduct clinical trials team with support from local regulators and the European Medicines Agency to register the product in a collaborative registration process. Togo and Ivory coast have been declared free of sleeping sickness and Uganda and DRC have already registered the new improved treatment.
21 Dec 2021 | Prof. Agnes Binagwaho is one of the best public health leaders coming out of Africa. She speaks from the experience of being one of the key architects of Rwandans healthcare system, which is one of the most equitable health systems globally. In this podcast, she shares many valuable insights that many public health leaders not just in Africa will do well to emulate. Prof. Binagwaho shares with us her reflections on whether healthcare for all is attainable, what must happen in order for it to be attained and the most critical elements to achieving it. For example, the right to information and the right to participation and how it provides ownership and empowers communities. According to Prof. Binagwaho, the right to information is as important as the right to participation. If you don't get people to participate, they do not own their health properly and if you don't inform them, they do not own it. So according to Prof. Binagwaho, educating people about their health is one of the most important roles of a leader. Tune in to watch this podcast, there is so much you can learn from this veteran of global public health, teaching the next generation of public healthcare leaders.
13 December 2021 | Africa has many existing biotech companies and CapeBio Technologies is one of them. The CEO of Capebio, Daniel Nima talks about how the biotech is harnessing unique ingredients, (enzymes) from the plants that have adapted to the harsh environment in South Africa´s Cape region to make diagnostics for detecting diseases, viruses and other infections. The plants in this region are unique and do not grow anywhere else in the world. This biotech is building a global business on the back of mother nature to fill a gap in diagnostics in African countries and empower scientists on the African continent and across the globe.
16 Nov 2021 | Lenias Hwenda | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Titans of Industry | Oramed´s oral insulin and oral Covid vaccine are powerful innovations that could transform access dynamics in Africa | Nadav Kidron, President & CEO Oramed Pharmaceuticals
Oramed was recently given approval from SAHPRA to initiate a phase 1 clinical trials for insulin. This vaccine is oral and does not require injection which simplifies logistics, it does not need to be given by a health professional and it does not require additional medical consumables like needs and syringes, all of which reduces its cost significantly. The President and CEO of Oramed pharmaceuticals, Nadav Kidron spoke to Lenias Hwenda about what this vaccines could mean on the African continent and his ambitions for the African continent.
09 Nov 2021 | Africa´s largest pharmaceutical multinational corporation, Aspen, is a trailblazing company that has shown that you can occupy global leadership position out of Africa. In a fireside conversation with Lenias Hwenda, Stavros Nicolaou, a Senior Executive at Aspen Pharmacare lamented that the his observation that countries on the African continent have a problem with pharmaceutical manufacturing implementation. Africa does not have many companies that have achieved Aspen Pharmacare´s success because far too many African pharmaceutical companies have been mothballed over the years primarily due to the procurement dynamics that excludes African manufacturers from local and international markets. African governments need to designate locally produced pharmaceuticals in order to solve their growing pharmaceutical trade deficit.
9 September 2021 | After international mechanisms failed to meet the need of Africans in the Covid-19 pandemic, would Africa invest so much energy in multilateral mechanism or rather focus more on regional coperation? Dr John Nkengasong the Director of the Africa CDC answers this question.
24 May 2021 | Lenias Hwenda: Let's Talk about Health in Africa - African people should be benefiting from the wealth and natural resources of their countries.
Lenias Hwenda in conversation with Honourable Minister Jay Naidoo, a former Minister for Reconstruction and Development, and the Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting in the government of President Nelson Mandela. Many African countries have vast national wealth in the form of natural resources that belong to their citizens. Yet, African citizens have not benefited from the exploitation of these natural resources and Africa's claim to fame remains its singular unparalleled poverty which exists alongside vast national wealth that drives the global economy. Hon. Jay Naidoo argues that is is possible for the wealth of African countries to be used for the well-being of Africans, that the status quo is not working for Africans and needs to be urgently changed because we are running out of time - the future is now, not tomorrow.