Establishment of the African Medicines Agency: progress, challenges and regulatory readiness

Insufficient access to quality, safe, efficacious and affordable medical products in Africa has posed a significant challenge to public health for decades. In part, this is attributed to weak or absent policies and regulatory systems, a lack of competent regulatory professionals in National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) and ineffective regional collaborations among NMRAs. In response to national regulatory challenges in Africa, a number of regional harmonisation efforts were introduced through the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) initiative to, among others, expedite market authorisation of medical products and to facilitate the alignment of national legislative frameworks with the AU Model Law on Medical Products Regulation. The goals of the model law include to increase collaboration across countries and to facilitate the overall regional harmonisation process. The AMRH initiative is proposed to serve as the foundation for the establishment of the African Medicines Agency (AMA). The AMA will, as one of its mandates, coordinate the regional harmonisation systems that are enabled by AU Model Law domestication and implementation. In this paper, we review the key entities involved in regional and continental harmonisation of medicines regulation, the milestones achieved in establishing the AMA as well as the implementation targets and anticipated challenges related to the AU Model Law domestication and the AMA’s establishment. This review shows that implementation targets for the AU Model Law have not been fully met, and the AMA treaty has not been ratified by the minimum required number of countries for its establishment. In spite of the challenges, the AU Model Law and the AMA hold promise to address gaps and inconsistencies in national regulatory legislation as well as to ensure effective medicines regulation by galvanising technical support, regulatory expertise and resources at a continental level. Furthermore, this review provides recommendations for future research.