Promising outcome of EU platform on access to medicines in Africa

The Platform on Access to Medicines in Developing Countries with a Focus on Africa took a step forward this week. This initiative was part of the Process on Corporate Responsibility in the field of pharmaceuticals launched by European Commission vice president Antonio Tajani and resulted in a fruitful European Union-Africa Pharma Business to Business Forum held in Brussels, said the European Generic and Biosimilar medicines Association (EGA), which took an active role.

The objective of the forum is to promote partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry, regulators and policy makers in Europe and Africa including the WHO, UNIDO, MPP, EFPIA and the EGA to name but a few, the trade group noted, adding that the exchange of views between regulators and the business community from Europe and Africa is a great opportunity to share best practices amongst pharmaceutical stakeholders to improve health through access to efficacious and safe medicines in Africa.

Nick Haggar, a member of the EGA Executive, at the B2B Forum expressed the generic and biosimilar medicines industries’ willingness “to provide high quality cost-competitive medicines through sustainable distribution models and a collaborative framework to improve health standards in Africa.”