The EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will mobilise more than €100 million over the next 5 years to provide support to African medicines authorities, according to a statement made by the European Commission on Wednesday 16 February.
This contribution was announced on the eve of the sixth EU-African Union summit in Brussels, which will dedicate part of its work to health and vaccination in Africa (see other news).
The package consists of commitments from the European Commission, the EMA, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and three EU Member States – Belgium, France and Germany. It will support the recently established African Medicines Agency (AMA) and other African initiatives to regulate medicines at regional and national levels.
This support will cover the initial stages of establishing the African Medicines Agency at continental level and the further development of the capacity to regulate African medicines at regional and national levels. It will promote collaboration and sharing of technical expertise between the EMA and AMA and will provide assistance to several African national regulatory authorities in meeting the World Health Organization's minimum requirements for effective regulatory oversight of local vaccine production. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)