💊 KEMRI teams up with Kenya Biovax; The Dengue Alliance sets an ambitious goal; Climate change has harsh impacts on African children

#420 | Ghana FDA warns of substandard drugs; Herbal plants vs PM2.5-linked illness; Secure stable employment, secure longer life

Hello and welcome back for a fresh new week with The Kable. About a week ago, Kenya hosted the inaugural Transforming African MedTech Conference. At the Conference, the Scientific Affairs Officer of the UN Economic Commission for Africa pegged Africa’s medical device exports at $600 million annually compared to $4 billion worth of imports. At present, African medtech has attracted $500 million in investments; by 2030, medical devices investment in Africa has the potential to reach $259 billion.

Portugal and Egypt are in the process of working out agreements to cooperate in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, digitalisation, and more. The countries intend to work together to support medical research and localize modern technologies for drug, vaccine and medical device manufacturing in Egypt.

In Ghana, the FDA has warned the public about the influx of fake and substandard medicines into the country. This is part of an FDA project to promote medicine quality and raise awareness about the existence of substandard drugs on the market. The FDA has also introduced an app to enable people to report adverse reactions to medicines to the FDA and healthcare workers. Overall, the Ghana FDA has intensified its market surveillance.

The Africa Climate Summit is beginning today in Nairobi. Kenyan authorities claim that five of the leading causes of death in the country are climate-related. To address these challenges, the Kenyan Ministry of Health is running a series of events on the sidelines of the Summit.

In Nigeria’s Kogi, as the Association of Resident Doctors’ 21-day ultimatum to the Kogi Government has elapsed, they are preparing for an indefinite strike. The ultimatum was to open up dialogue and engagement about doctors’ demands concerning remuneration.

In Senegal, chikungunya is quite rare. But last month, total cases have risen to 112 in the Kédougou region. Fortunately, none of the cases so far is serious. But measures to control the outbreak are already in place: a lab from the Institut Pasteur de Dakar has moved to Kédougou for rapid diagnoses and anthropologists are communicating with the population to manage the on-ground situation.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency and the Saudi Arabian Health Ministry’s Deputyship of Human Resources have signed an agreement for employment cooperation in the health sector. The agreement involves protecting Indonesian health workers in Saudi Arabia through safe recruitment and placement, contracts, and working conditions.

In Seychelles, health authorities have agreed to expedite the inking of an MoU with Zambia. The MoU aims to facilitate the recruitment of Zambian health professionals in Seychelles and the training of Seychellois health professionals in Zambia.

In a promising development, Thai research has explored the potential of three herbal plants to fight chronic illnesses associated with PM2.5 pollution.

CEPI and the Korea-headquartered International Vaccine Institute (IVI) are renewing their collab to speed up vaccine development against emerging infectious diseases. Under this renewed agreement, IVI will provide technical services to CEPI-funded projects supporting their 100 Days Mission.

GSK is investing about $270 million to expand its vaccine manufacturing facilities in Wavre, Belgium. Of the two planned wings, one will produce non-live vaccines like its RSV shot and shingles shot; the other wing will produce live vaccines like those for chicken pox and measles. The facility will be fully operational in 2027 and will have the capacity to produce tens of millions of doses annually. The facility will be designed to maximise manufacturing efficiency and minimise environmental impact.

And finally, what’s a news day without news of AI? A leading AI-based biotech company, Intelligent OMICS (Intellomx) is entering a target discovery collab with Janssen. Their focus is on novel biological targets for haematological cancer treatment.