Africa Can a medicine be considered “available” if it can’t be trusted? As Africa’s manufacturing base expands and its regulatory systems mature, that question is moving to the centre of the continent’s health agenda. Lenias Hwenda maps out why 2026 is a turning point for African patient safety — anchored by…

Africa African healthcare and pharma are moving from ambition to action. Regular PharmaBoardroom contributor Lenias Hwenda explains how, after years of over-dependence on global supply chains, fragmented regulation, and limited local manufacturing, the continent is asserting greater control over its health destiny. Regulatory maturity is rising. Patient safety is gaining prominence,…

Africa Africa accounts for 19 percent of the world’s population and one-quarter of the global disease burden. However, for a host of reasons – both real and perceptual – the continent does not yet play host to meaningful levels of clinical research, accounting for just 1.1 percent of all clinical trials…

Africa Writing in the July 2025 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Alex Juma Ismail of the African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and Vicki Gold, a consultant to the Gates Foundation, unveil the “Continental List of Human Medicinal Products” pilot—a first-of-its-kind initiative led by the…

Africa Building on the recent controversy over Tanzania’s handling of a suspected Marburg virus outbreak, Medicines for Africa’s Lenias Hwenda explores how African nations often face disproportionate consequences for outbreak transparency—penalties that wealthier countries rarely experience.   African countries face a difficult choice during outbreak situations. On one hand, they have…

Africa John M. Mwangi of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, writing in the December 2024 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, examines why longstanding calls to implant more of the pharmaceutical manufacturing chain into Africa have yet to reach fruition.   Recent pandemics have triggered calls for deglobalization in the production of medical products…

Africa The IFPMA’s Sarah Adam, writing in the July 2024 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, looks back on an insightful discussion on the progress towards an African Medicines Agency at the DIA Europe conference earlier this year. The African Medicines Agency (AMA) is paving the way for Africa to achieve…

Global Several major scientific breakthroughs in HIV prevention and treatment in the past 40 years have successfully transformed HIV from a near-certain ‘death sentence’ to a manageable chronic disease where many patients can still enjoy long and largely healthy lives. This, however, is contingent on them having access to the full…

Global In 2024, people living with HIV have more, and more varied, access to HIV prevention and treatment options than ever before. Thanks to global activism efforts forcing pharma to step up, and the establishment of some vital institutional structures in the first decade of the millennium, access is up, while…

Africa Medicines for Africa’s Lenias Hwenda reflects on Moderna’s recent decision not to go ahead with plans for a vaccine manufacturing facility in Kenya, and why local production remains crucial to building Africa’s healthcare autonomy.   In a turn of events that is both disappointing yet somehow not surprising, Moderna recently…

Africa Medicines for Africa’s Lenias Hwenda argues that the success of the much-talked-about African Medicines Agency hinges on a critical mass of African national regulators achieving WHO Level 3 maturity status. While acknowledging the importance of international actors in making this happen, Hwenda argues that – if the African Medicines Agency…

Africa Writing in the February 2024 edition of the DIA Global Forum magazine, Verena Pfaffinger and Ilona Baraniak-Lang of PharmaLex examine how the drug shortages seen in the global south during and after the COVID-19 pandemic can best be overcome through the adoption of decentralised manufacturing.   The COVID-19 pandemic exposed…