NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya has reaffirmed its ambition to become a leading pharmaceutical manufacturing hub for Africa, with the government calling for greater continental cooperation to reduce dependence on imported medicines, vaccines and diagnostics.
Speaking during a parallel session on Access to Medicines, Regulatory Harmonisation and Local and Regional Manufacturing of Medicines, Vaccines and Diagnostics, Medical Services Principal Secretary Dr. Ouma Oluga said Africa must urgently strengthen domestic pharmaceutical production to enhance health security and reduce vulnerability to global supply disruptions.
Oluga argued that Africa’s heavy reliance on imported pharmaceuticals poses not only a market challenge but also a governance risk.
“Africa’s pharmaceutical dependency is not just a market failure. It threatens to be a governance failure, yet we now have the tools to correct it,” he said.
The Principal Secretary said Kenya has already laid the legal and institutional foundation to support local pharmaceutical manufacturing through key health reforms enacted in 2023.
He cited the Social Health Insurance Act, the Digital Health Act, and the Primary Health Care Act, saying the laws have created predictable demand for medicines by expanding healthcare coverage and strengthening health systems.
According to Oluga, the reforms have also established a national digital health information system capable of generating real-time consumption data while positioning the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) as a reliable purchaser through structured financing mechanisms.
He said these measures are making Kenya an attractive destination for investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The PS warned that Africa continues to bear the consequences of importing medicines and vaccines produced elsewhere, particularly amid growing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and rapid advances in biologic therapies.
“The AMR crisis is failing patients with medicines we cannot make, and the biologics revolution is extending lives on every continent except ours because we import what others produce and we pay what others price,” he said.
Oluga called for stronger implementation of continental initiatives, including the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism, the African Medicines Agency (AMA) and the World Bank’s AIM 2030 programme, saying they provide the framework for consolidating fragmented national markets into a single African pharmaceutical market.
He stressed that political commitment, procurement preferences and long-term purchasing agreements are essential to making regional manufacturing commercially viable.
The Principal Secretary said Africa should embrace specialization, technology transfer and complementary manufacturing across countries instead of each nation attempting to produce every medical product independently.
“No single African country can manufacture everything it needs, and none should try. Specialisation, technology transfer, and complementary manufacturing across countries is how this continent must build a resilient supply chain rather than 54 fragile ones,” he said.
Oluga further urged the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the African Medicines Agency to move beyond policy development and focus on integrating national initiatives into a coordinated continental pharmaceutical supply chain.
He reiterated Kenya’s commitment to manufacturing vaccines, biologics, diagnostics and priority essential medicines through the Kenya BioVax Institute, saying the country has already established the necessary legal framework and strengthened key health institutions.
“We are not here to make pledges. We have established Kenya BioVax Institute for this assignment. We enacted the laws. We capitalised the supply institutions. We are inviting partners, continental and global, to co-invest in an ecosystem that is already being built,” he said.
Oluga concluded by urging African governments to back local pharmaceutical manufacturing with sustained financing, procurement support and accountability.
“The question before this summit is not whether Africa should manufacture. The question is whether we will fund it, protect it, and demand accountability for its delivery. Kenya’s answer is yes. We invite the continent to say the same.”