Cleanrooms and other spaces involved in the production of pharmaceuticals must be, well, clean, to say the least. A gust of wind bringing in dust and other outdoor pollutants? Personnel operating the machines sneezing or shedding clothing fibres or skin flakes? Chemicals emitted by building materials? All of these are big no-nos. That’s why it’s…

In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, Eli Lilly did something which wasn’t very common. The Big Pharma company transferred technology for two tuberculosis (TB) drugs to pharma manufacturers in South Africa. This early instance of tech transfer in the pharma industry in Africa effectively helped fight the multi-drug resistant TB problem.   More…

As the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) sets its sights on an ambitious target of fulfilling 60% of the continent’s vaccine needs through local production by 2040, a major obstacle lies in the startling lack of pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure across the region. Despite being home to over 1.3 billion people, Africa…

Gene therapy interventions stand front and centre in healthcare innovation.   As the most rapidly growing therapeutic modality, over 50 new in vivo and ex vivo gene therapy launches are planned for the next few years. At present, pretty much all viral vectors for gene therapy are one of three types: adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors,…

Ah South America. The land of the samba. And the tango. And Carlos Santana. And the greatest of great footballers. And the Amazon rainforest. And capoeira. And chimichurri. And asado. And carnitas. And pao de queijo. Okay, enough with the food already.   How about also calling it the land of civil unrest? And some…

  Two birds, one stone The USA, the UK, wealthy European countries, and other large economies appear to be nearing their saturation points. According to an analysis by McKinsey & Company, while many of these large markets are experiencing slow or stagnating economic growth, Africa presents one of the only pharmaceutical markets where exponentially high…

Time and again, concerning reports of eyedrops with bacterial contamination, ineffective medications, mislabelled tablets, or the like surface globally. Not all such products are counterfeit or falsified; some are made with the intention of providing consumers with a quality health product, but there may have been lapses along the way. Across these different challenges, quality…

The world stands at a critical juncture in the battle against Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), with diabetes leading as a particularly relentless adversary. The urgency for accessible, reliable injectable medications is most acutely felt in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). These regions, constrained by limited healthcare infrastructure, urgently require innovative,…