By Bunmi Yekini
African leaders meeting on the sidelines of the 39th African Union summit were urged on Sunday to fast-track ratification of a continent-wide medicines treaty, as the continent’s medicines regulator pressed for broader backing to combat unsafe drugs and strengthen health security.
At a high-level presidential breakfast convened by the African Medicines Agency, heads of state, ministers and senior officials called on the 24 member countries yet to ratify the agency’s founding treaty to act without delay, describing a unified regulatory system as critical to Africa’s health and economic ambitions.
The gathering, held on the margins of the African Union Assembly, brought together leaders and representatives of the African Union, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat to accelerate the agency’s operational rollout, universal ratification and long-term financing.
Officials said progress had been made in establishing the regulator and operationalising its headquarters in Kigali, but only 31 of the AU’s 55 member states have ratified the treaty. The shortfall leaves gaps in protection against substandard and falsified medical products and slows efforts to build a single African regulatory market, they added.
Seychelles Vice President Sebastien Pillay pledged continued political and financial support, announcing a $200,000 contribution, double the required seed funding from member states, and urged larger economies to match the commitment.
Tunisia’s health minister Mustapha Ferjani said Africa’s health independence depended on strong regulation. He called on governments to ratify the treaty and equip the agency with the resources and governance needed to act effectively.
Presenting priority actions, AMA Director General Delese Mimi Darko said the agency aims to achieve universal ratification, secure World Health Organisation-listed authority status and reach financial self-reliance by 2030. She said the regulator had evolved from a treaty framework into an operational institution working with ratifying states to strengthen oversight and streamline joint assessments.
In her closing remarks, Amma Twum-Amoah, the African Union commissioner for health, humanitarian affairs and social development, described the medicines agency as central to the bloc’s health and development agenda. She said universal ratification and sustainable financing were achievable within the current political cycle and aligned with the union’s long-term development strategies.
The summit discussions framed the medicines agency as a cornerstone of efforts to ensure access to safe, quality medical products, boost regional industrialisation and support a more integrated African market.