Regulations the top hurdle to make medicines in Africa, officials say

Africa imports 94% of the medicines its people use, but according to some public health officials, the most daunting obstacle to producing locally is not poor facilities, a lack of finance, staff shortages, intellectual property rights, or any other of the likely candidates.

Instead, it is the country-level regulatory hurdles that companies will face as the European Union promises to shift manufacturing to African countries, officials said Thursday during the EU’s “Global Gateway” forum in Brussels.

“I worry that is going to be the thing that slows us down the most,” Peter Sands, the executive director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told the audience, calling regulations “the most complicated and difficult part of this whole equation.”