Tagged with Africa

USA Since its establishment in 2003, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has saved over 25 million lives and drastically reduced HIV infection rates through antiretroviral treatments. Now well established as the leading global funder of HIV prevention efforts, PEPFAR is supporting high HIV burden countries to meet…

Middle East & Africa Roula Youssef Halabi, SVP Global Fertility Services, discusses her six-year journey at CooperSurgical, establishing a footprint in the Middle East, overcoming cultural biases as a female executive and the shift that has led GCC countries to increasingly recognize the importance of women’s health. She also speaks about the need for…

Middle East & Africa Rami Rajab, CEO of the medical devices trade association, MECOMED, walks us through the organization’s current priorities, including its focus on Saudi Arabia in light of the kingdom’s ongoing transformation, and the creation of the UAE Regulatory Authority for Medical Devices (EDE). In addition, he reviews the challenges surrounding digital…

Middle East & Africa A lot has happened at Olympus since we last spoke with regional managing director for Middle East, Türkiye & Africa Ronald Boueri two years ago. Namely, the MedTech has been working on setting up its regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia. Boueri discusses the importance of the Saudi market, pursuing its…

Africa Medicines for Africa’s Lenias Hwenda reflects on Moderna’s recent decision not to go ahead with plans for a vaccine manufacturing facility in Kenya, and why local production remains crucial to building Africa’s healthcare autonomy.   In a turn of events that is both disappointing yet somehow not surprising, Moderna recently…

Africa Nigeria has become the first country to roll out a new meningitis vaccine. The product, a shot able to protect against the five causes of meningococcal meningitis, was developed by the Serum Institute of India (SIIPL) and health equity non-profit PATH. With more meningitis vaccine-based projects in the pipeline, stakeholders…

Africa Medicines for Africa’s Lenias Hwenda argues that the success of the much-talked-about African Medicines Agency hinges on a critical mass of African national regulators achieving WHO Level 3 maturity status. While acknowledging the importance of international actors in making this happen, Hwenda argues that – if the African Medicines Agency…

Europe PharmaBoardroom was delighted to attend DIA Europe 2024 in Brussels earlier this month, bringing together a veritable who’s-who of the European and global regulatory community. The politicians, regulators, payers, patient advocates, industry representatives, and service providers in attendance were treated to a three-day buffet of engaging panels and townhalls with…

Global Gavi, the world’s largest vaccine-focused public-private partnership has a new leader. Pakistani Senator Dr Sania Nishtar has officially assumed the role of CEO following a period of leadership uncertainty for the organisation and must now lay out Gavi’s strategic plan for 2026 to 2030, as well as convince its partners…

Africa Writing in the February 2024 edition of the DIA Global Forum magazine, Verena Pfaffinger and Ilona Baraniak-Lang of PharmaLex examine how the drug shortages seen in the global south during and after the COVID-19 pandemic can best be overcome through the adoption of decentralised manufacturing.   The COVID-19 pandemic exposed…

Global Tremendous strides have been made in both treatment and prevention of AIDS and it is no longer among the 10 leading causes of death globally, however an estimated 39 million people were living with the disease globally in 2022. HIV treatments has become more manageable and are reaching more patients…

South Africa Dr Benji Pretorius, the founder of Erada Technology Alliance and a malaria survivor himself, shares his insights into why the development of a truly effective malaria vaccine will only succeed in combating the world’s number one killer if it is integral to a ubiquitous, efficacious diagnostic programme.   Malaria, a…