An industry association representing SA pharmaceutical manufacturers has criticised the Medicines Patent Pool for failing to grant African generic drug makers licences to make cheap copies of ViiV Healthcare's long-acting cabotegravir injection, which prevents HIV.
Africa bears a disproportionate share of the world’s HIV/Aids burden, and the AU is pushing hard the continent's pharmaceutical manufacturers to play a bigger role in making products for combating HIV. Its drive to improve Africa’s security of supply gained fresh momentum during the coronavirus pandemic, as countries with domestic Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity prioritised their own citizens when shots were in short supply, leaving African nations at the back of the queue...