African countries need to implement strong regulatory frameworks against illicit, fake and counterfeit medicines that have flooded the continent, a Zambian government official said on Monday.
Emmanuel Mwamba, Zambia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union (AU), said illicit medicines were costing both lives and huge financial losses to Africa’s economies.
The prevalence of illicit medicines threatened the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for good health and well-being, he added.
The Zambian envoy was commenting on an AU report titled, “Low and Middle Income Countries Worst Affected by Poor Pharmaceutical Governance, Weak Technical Capacity and Poor Supply Chain Management,” according to a release.
The report has established that Africa accounts for 42 percent of substandard counterfeit and falsified medicines in the world.
The Zambian envoy noted that the creation of the Africa Medicines Agency, as a continental regulatory body on medicines, will help mitigate the vice of fake, counterfeit and illicit medicines present on the markets in Africa.
According to him, the creation of the agency will also help strengthen capacity to manufacture drugs in member countries than the current scenario where medicines were imported from outside the country.
He expressed hope that the establishment of the African Medicines Authority would provide regulatory guidance, complement and enhance collaboration and contribute to improving patients access to quality, safe and efficacious products and health technologies on the continent.
