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. 2021 Nov 9;18(22):11758.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211758.

Advancing African Medicines Agency through Global Health Diplomacy for an Equitable Pan-African Universal Health Coverage: A Scoping Review

Vijay Kumar Chattu  1   2   3 , Vishal B Dave  4 , K Srikanth Reddy  5   6 , Bawa Singh  7 , Biniyam Sahiledengle  8 , Demisu Zenbaba Heyi  8 , Cornelius Nattey  9 , Daniel Atlaw  10 , Kioko Jackson  11 , Ziad El-Khatib  12   13 , Akram Ali Eltom  14
Affiliations

Advancing African Medicines Agency through Global Health Diplomacy for an Equitable Pan-African Universal Health Coverage: A Scoping Review

Vijay Kumar Chattu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The African continent is home to 15% of the world's population and suffers from a disease burden of more than 25% globally. In this COVID-19 era, the high burden and mortality are further worsened due to inequities, inequalities such as inadequate health systems, scarce financial and human resources, as well as unavailability of inexpensive medicines of good quality, safety, and efficacy. The Universal Health Coverage ensures that people have access to high-quality essential health services, secure, reliable, and affordable essential medicines and vaccines, as well as financial security. This paper aimed at addressing the critical need for a continental African Medicines Agency (AMA) in addressing the inequities and the role of global health diplomacy in building consensus to support the ratification of the Treaty of AMA. A literature review was done in Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE/PubMed, and Google Scholar search engine to identify the critical literature in the context of study objectives. All the articles published after 2015 till 2021 in the context of AMA were included. African Health Strategy 2016-2030 highlighted the importance of an African regulatory mechanism for medicines and medical products. Through global health diplomacy (GHD), the African Union and its partners can negotiate and cooperate in providing infrastructural, administrative, and regulatory support for establishing the AMA. The paper emphasizes the South-South cooperation and highlights the contributions of India and China in the supply of medicines and vaccines to Africa. A strong AMA created through GHD can be a vital instrument in utilizing Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) flexibilities extension and an ideal partner for European and other regional regulatory authorities seeking to stem the tide of counterfeit, sub-standard, or fake products.

Keywords: African Medicines Agency; COVID-19; equity; health diplomacy; intellectual property rights; universal health coverage.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram for the scoping review process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Evolution of African Medicines Agency. Source: AMRH, 2015.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Engagement of African Medical Agency in health diplomacy with its main regional partners. Source: conceptualized by the authors.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Engagement of African Medicines Agency in regional health/global health diplomacy with international partners. Source: conceptualized by the authors.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Guiding principles of African Medicines Agency. Source: AUDA-NEPAD https://nepad.org/microsite/african-medicines-agency-ama (accessed on 22 May 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Roser M., Ritchie H. Our World in Data. The Burden of Disease. 2019. [(accessed on 12 March 2021)]. Available online: https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease.
    1. Chattu V.K., Knight W.A., Adisesh A., Yaya S., Reddy K.S., Di Ruggiero E., Aginam O., Aslanyan G., Clarke M., Massoud M.R., et al. Politics of disease control in Africa and the critical role of global health diplomacy: A systematic review. Health Promot. Perspect. 2021;11:20–31. doi: 10.34172/hpp.2021.04. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Infomineo Africa Continental Free Trade Area: Benefits, Costs, and Implications. 2019. [(accessed on 12 March 2021)]. Available online: https://infomineo.com/africa-continental-free-trade-area/
    1. The World Health Organization Improving the Quality of Medical Products for Universal Access. 2017. [(accessed on 12 March 2021)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/medicines/regulation/fact-figures-qual-med/en/

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