Utano Podcast | Let's Talk about Health in Africa

With more than half of the people on the African continent not having access to basic essential medicines according to the World Health Organization resulting in an estimated one million deaths, the challenge of poor access to medicines will not be solved by one government or a single organization alone. There is only so much that any single organization can do and that is why partnership is so important. Pharma cannot simply reduce its contribution to the provision of medicines but need to care about the benefits to society at large. Pharmaceutical companies are a key partner in solving the challenge of access to reach more people so that innovations are not just sitting on the shelf. Beyond making medicines, society expects pharma companies to have a clear access agenda so that it is innovating for the many not only the few. The private sector need to make sure that innovation reaches patients. It need to go beyond the transactional approach and take a keen interest in how medicines are being used in order to deliver the greatest value to society. We need medicines that are fit-for-purpose in resource contrained settings to allow us to better utilize those solutions when resources are limited. There are challenges with deploying innovation in the best interest of patients which leads patients be diagnosed in the community way too late when they may no longer quality for disease modifying therapy thereby worsening health outcomes. So we need to find areas in the health systems where we can work together in order to reduce those barriers. It the past it has taken 10 years for innovation to reach African patients after it was available in Europe on the US. It is possible to eliminate this gap to a zero time gap as was recently done with a product that was approved by the Food and Drugs Authority,Ghana and the Swiss regulator Swissmedic within the same time frame. We need an ecosystem that makes it possible for African innovation to be more visible and to thrive. There are some exceptionally bright people who can drive innovation in Africa for Africa and for the world. The sickle cell gene therapy that Novartis is working on in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one example of that. I am optimistic that over the next decade we will see things like this happening.

#africa #health #clinicaltrials #decentralisedclinicaltrials #healthcare #globalhealth #medicines #vaccines #ama #africanmedicinesagency #ema #europeanmedicinesagency 30 October 2023 | Lenias Hwenda | The African Medicines Agency - what comes next | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Chimwemwe Chamdimba

The coming year in 2024 is going to be an exciting one according to Chimwemwe Chamdimba, the head of the Africa Regulatory Harmonization Initiative at AUDA NEPAD. Listen to find out why this is an exciting year for the African Medicines Agency. In this podcast, Chimwemwe explains what to expect in the coming months and key initiative that are on the horizon for the African Medicines agency. She explains where development are with the board of directors, and terms of reference for recruiting the Director General of the African Medicines Agency. Listen for more.

#africa #health #clinicaltrials #decentralisedclinicaltrials #healthcare #globalhealth #medicines #vaccines 27 April 2023 | Lenias Hwenda | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Craig Lipset. In this conversation, Craig Lipset discusses with Lenias Hwenda how decentralised clinical trials are being increasingly used in clinical research in Europe and the US and how they can help to expand diversity and reach during clinical trials if clinical investigators are intentional about design. A clinical trial is a series of research studies that test new treatments before they are approved for people to use. Before national medicines regulators can approve a new treatment for use in people, clinical trial results must show that the treatment works and does not cause harm to people. One of the challenges with clinical trials is that racial and ethnic minorities are generally significantly under-represented. Too few clinical trials are done in African countries, and the decentralised approach offers an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges that limits reach and diversity. Craig explains why the increasingly important decentralised clinical trial approach complements the traditional approach over the next decade and what sponsors, investigators and clinical sites should think about to increase diversity in clinical research including in the African context. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegcj4FoxgVoogCiXGySvpg Follow Let's Talk about Health in Africa on social LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/utanopodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275438384523782 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meds4Africa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meds4africa/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medicinesforafrica/ Website: www.medicines4africa.com

14 March 2023 | Lenias Hwenda talks about rare diseases in Africa with Kelly du Plessis, the CEO of Rare Diseases South Africa. Rare diseases remain poorly understood by health authorities and yet they are increasingly affecting African populations. Kelly du Plessis explains some of the challenges with rare diseases in Africa and how her organisation, Rare Diseases South Africa has been solving these challenges in South Africa.

Have you ever wondered why foreign aid has persisted for so long? Dr Olusoji Adeyi, the President of Reilient Health Systems and a former Director at The World Bank explains the nuances of foreign aid and why it is counter-productive. Foreign aid has persisted in order to support a foreign aid industrial complex that has been built around aid. This complex is sustained for the benefit of those around it - the external contractors who's business is to but products for distribution in African countries. In fact most of the time bilateral aid is not fundamentally aimed at Africans. According to Dr Adeyi, African countries would be best served by creating a plan to transition out of receiving aid for routine healthcare needs by 2030.

31 Aug 2021 | Lenias Hwenda | Utano Podcast | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | The size of Africa´s cancer burden and what governments should do about it 

To celebrate International Women’s Month, we are hosting a Live Podcast to explore explores  the personal and professional experiences of high level professional African women working in global health. Recently, there have been growing calls amongst global health academics to decolonize global health in the leading medical journals like The Lancet and the British Medical Journal. The decolonization campaign seeks to fight against systems of dominance and power in the global health community of those working to improve the health of populations worldwide. Global health has its origins in the colonial era when it was a means to control colonized populations and make exploitation by colonial powers easier. However, today, the same power imbalances persist amongst many organizations and individuals working in global health, most of whom preserve and perpetuate the same power imbalances that they profess their work seeks to correct. This is reflected in the extractive nature of relationships between nations and individuals in global health and the perpetual failure of most recipient countries to improve their development capacity after decades of receiving capacity develop support by donor partners. It is against the very purpose of global health organisations to develop the kind of capacity development that would make countries less dependent on donor support. This is clear in the fact that they typically concentrate resources, expertise and data amongst other things in institutions of high-income countries. These power imbalances in global health are not necessarily confined to the wealthier nations. They can also be found in institutions of poorer nations where there is a small cadre of professionals who benefit from the status quo.

#ntds #endtheneglect #neglectednotrare

30 December 2021 | Imagine a disease that affects 60 million people, with only 3 treatments, one of which kills 5% of the patients, and administration can only be done in hospital. Dr Philippe Neau and his colleagues in Sanofi, NGOs, WHO and governments are working to change the paradigm of treating sleeping sickness to improve the available treatments by bringing oral medicines that  can be easily taken at community health facilities, with shorter courses without requirement for a lumbar puncture that can only be done in a hospital setting.   Products with a better safety and efficacy profiles will also enable the prophalactic treatment and treatment of suspected cases which will help to eliminate the remaining reservoirs of the tsetse fly parasite that causes sleeping sickness. Sanofi product development has been working with communities to conduct clinical trials team with support from local regulators and the European Medicines Agency to register the product in a collaborative registration process. Togo and Ivory coast have been declared free of sleeping sickness and Uganda and DRC have already registered the new improved treatment.

21 Dec 2021 | Prof. Agnes Binagwaho is one of the best public health leaders coming out of Africa. She speaks from the experience of being one of the key architects of Rwandans healthcare system, which is one of the most equitable health systems globally. In this podcast, she shares many valuable insights that many public health leaders not just in Africa will do well to emulate. Prof. Binagwaho shares with us her reflections on whether healthcare for all is attainable, what must happen in order for it to be attained and the most critical elements to achieving it. For example, the right to information and the right to participation and how it provides ownership and empowers communities. According to Prof. Binagwaho, the right to information is as important as the right to participation. If you don't get people to participate, they do not own their health properly and if you don't inform them, they do not own it. So according to Prof. Binagwaho, educating people about their health is one of the most important roles of a leader. Tune in to watch this podcast, there is so much you can learn from this veteran of global public health, teaching the next generation of public healthcare leaders.

 13 December 2021 | Africa has many existing biotech companies and CapeBio Technologies is one of them. The CEO of Capebio, Daniel Nima talks about how the biotech is harnessing unique ingredients, (enzymes) from the plants that have adapted to the harsh environment in South Africa´s Cape region to make diagnostics for detecting diseases, viruses and other infections. The plants in this region are unique and do not grow anywhere else in the world. This biotech is building a global business on the back of mother nature to fill a gap in diagnostics in African countries and empower scientists on the African continent and across the globe.

16 Nov 2021  | Lenias Hwenda | Let's Talk about Health in Africa | Titans of Industry  | Oramed´s oral insulin and oral Covid vaccine are powerful innovations that could transform access dynamics in Africa  | Nadav Kidron, President & CEO Oramed Pharmaceuticals

Oramed was recently given approval from SAHPRA to initiate a phase 1 clinical trials for insulin. This vaccine is oral and does not require injection which simplifies logistics, it does not need to be given by a health professional and it does not require additional medical consumables like needs and syringes, all of which reduces its cost significantly. The President and CEO of Oramed pharmaceuticals, Nadav Kidron spoke to Lenias Hwenda about what this vaccines could mean on the African continent and his ambitions for the African continent.

09 Nov 2021 |  Africa´s largest pharmaceutical multinational corporation, Aspen, is a trailblazing company that has shown that you can occupy global leadership position out of Africa. In a fireside conversation with Lenias Hwenda, Stavros Nicolaou, a Senior Executive at Aspen Pharmacare lamented that the his observation that countries on the African continent have a problem with pharmaceutical manufacturing implementation. Africa does not have many companies that have achieved Aspen Pharmacare´s success because far too many African pharmaceutical companies have been mothballed over the years primarily due to the procurement dynamics that excludes African manufacturers from local and international markets. African governments need to designate locally produced pharmaceuticals in order to solve their growing pharmaceutical trade deficit.

9 September 2021 | After international mechanisms failed to meet the need of Africans in the Covid-19 pandemic, would Africa invest so much energy in multilateral mechanism or rather focus more on regional coperation? Dr John Nkengasong the Director of the Africa CDC answers this question.

24 May 2021 | Lenias Hwenda: Let's Talk about Health in Africa - African people should be benefiting from the wealth and natural resources of their countries.

Lenias Hwenda in conversation with Honourable Minister Jay Naidoo, a former Minister for Reconstruction and Development, and the Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting in the government of President Nelson Mandela. Many African countries have vast national wealth in the form of natural resources that belong to their citizens. Yet, African citizens have not benefited from the exploitation of these natural resources and Africa's claim to fame remains its singular unparalleled poverty which exists alongside vast national wealth that drives the global economy. Hon. Jay Naidoo argues that is is possible for the wealth of African countries to be used for the well-being of Africans, that the status quo is not working for Africans and needs to be urgently changed because we are running out of time - the future is now, not tomorrow.

28 October 2021 | Post independent Africa has managed its public health according to the wishes of international development partners. This has resulted in health systems that are distorted towards infectious diseases partly to limit the threat that they pose to the West. The notion of health security global health took the perspective of limiting as much as possible the perceived threat that infectious diseases in Africa pose to Western countries. The neglect of security of the health of Africans has been more apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic in which companies have organised their supply chains in a manner that excluded African countries from purchasing vaccines leaving 97% of Africa´s 1.3 billion people unvaccinated. The Africa Centre for disease Control, the African Union's lead agency for health security has defined a new public health order to change the paradigm of health on the continent towards a more balanced approach that places the well being of African people at its core.  Listen to Dr ahmed Ogwell Ouma explain what Africa´s new public health order entails and what it demands on the part of African governments, private sector and civil society.

 26 October 2021 |  In its recent budget, the government of Mauritius announced its plans to add a new pillar to its economy by establishing pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa. Aspen Global is leading private sector efforts to support the government put in place a framework for implementing this plan. Listen to Samer Kassem, the CEO of Aspen Global tell us more about this ground breaking work.

14 October 2021 |  For years now the third agency of the African Union that is working on public health, The AUDA-Nepad has been working on regulatory harmonisation for medicines across the African continent. The goal has always been to build towards establishing an African Medicines Agency to parallel the European Medicines Agency. The Treaty for establishing the African Medicines Agency has now achieved ratification and is expected to come into effect before the end of 2021. Listen to Michel Sidibe, the African Union Special Envoy to the African Union tell us more about these developments and their implications for the African continent.

The WHO, the African Union and the Government of South Africa have partnered to establish Africa´s first mRNA hubs in Cape Town in South Africa. This collaborative initiative is being led by Professor Petro Terblanche, the Managing Director of Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines. The company has built so many capabilities and has penetrated US andEuropean markets with its cannabinoids based products and it is formulating mRNA delivery systems, the only company in the Southern Hemisphere with this capability. Tune is to hear from Professor Terblanche about why this is the most t promising and most exciting African biotech company to emerge out of Africa.

 2 September 2021 | Africa has pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities that are not so well know because no one talks about these issues. This is why it might surprise some to discover that companies like Sothema have been making biologics like insulin on the African continent for 40 years and is now partnering with Sinopharm to make one of the few vaccines that are available and that have been issued emergency use authorisation. Madame Lamia Tazi the CEO and Chairwoman of the Board of Sothema in Morocco talked to us about the work of Sothema.

31 August 2021 | Governments, private sector and investors are all coming together to rally around the need to establish vaccine manufacturing on the African continent. The success of these efforts whenever depends on securing the market for vaccine manufacturing businesses. Professor Shabir Madhi, the Director of the Rubic Consortium which entered into a technology transfer agreement with Dyadic International tells us more about their plans to make a cost-effective vaccine at a fraction of the cost and what governments must do to secure the industry.

5 July 2021 | Corruptions seems to be accepted in many places as a normal part of life. Its quinces on the lives of ordinary people are devastating. Tune in to hear Allan Pamba the former CEO of Nairobi Hospital who found himself under tremendous undue pressure from his board for Directors to make decisions that would ultimately prove harmful to the patients in the instition´s care. 

28 June 2021 | There is a lot of talk about what is wrong with Africa, but what exactly are the steps that Africa leaders and African people should be taken to correct these challenges and put Africa on the right course? President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim addresses these questions in this conversation.

24 June 2021 |  LaGray Chemical Company owned by Dr Alexandra Graham and Dr Paul Lartey showed proof of concept of the need to manufacture pharmaceutical ingredients on the African continent in order to facilitate production by African companies. In this conversation, Dr Alexandra Graham explains the need for ingredient manufacturing in Africa and what her company achieved in Ghana.

21 June 2021 | How can Africa ensure that it is not at the end of the queue for vaccines and medical products during global health emergencies. The current global mechanisms have failed and Africa is in great need of new models of accessing vaccines.

24 May 2021 | Lenias Hwenda: Let's Talk about Health in Africa - Lenias Hwenda's Take on natural resources and the sustainable development of African economies.  

Lenias gives her take that if African economies want to protect African economies, they need to protect heath. She discusses the chronic underfunding of African health systems and what that means for sustainable development of African countries and whether natural resources could be a viable source of funding to build resilient health systems capable of withstanding shocks like pandemics and other public health emergencies.

24 May 2021 |  Diabetes is severely under diagnosed in Africa and it is a condition that increases the vulnerability of patients with Covid-19 disease. In this podcast, Dr Ankia Coetzee an endocrinologists discusses some of the observations in her clinic and offers some tips to patients and professionals how to manage diabetes in the context of Covid-19.

Lenias Hwenda talks about her new Podcast, Let's Talk about Health in Africa on Utano Podcast and the conversations she is having with leaders in Africa how to improve healthcare in Africa, leaders such as President Ameenah Gurib Fakim of Mauritius, Dr Faisal Shuaib of Nigeria and Professor Abdool Karim of South Africa. These conversations we put the challenges into perspective by talking about how they impact lives and hold back sustainable development of nations snd explores the solutions that are being put into action to change the state of healthcare in Africa and ask whether what’s being done is what’s needed and what other actions must be taken to close the gap between what is being done and what needs to be done. In conversation with leaders, Lenias takes another look at the things that we have come to take for granted and ask whether they have been driving or limiting progress in and effort to prompt actionable solutions that will change the status quo, improve the well-being of African people and secure African economies.

16 April 2021 | Lenias Hwenda: Let's Talk about Health in Africa - We have made progress, an African Medicines Agency could be operating within six months.  

In this Podcast, Lenias Hwenda in conversation with Mrs Margareth Ndomondo-Sigonda the Head of Programmes Africa Union New Partnership for Development (AU-NEPAD) explains why Africa needs an African Medicines Agency and what such an agency would mean for African people.  

Guest: Mrs Margareth Ndomondo-Sigonda Head of Programmes Africa Union  New Partnership for Development (AU-NEPAD 

A lot of work has been put into harmonising medicines regulations across the 55 countries of the African Union. It has been a painstaking effort driven by AU-Nepad and accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Aligning laws and regulations used to ensure that medicines are safe and work as expected is the first step towards creating an African Medicines Agency with oversight over the continent's 55 countries. Realising the ambition to make medicines and vaccines requires an agency of this nature, and it is six months away from coming into effect.

10 May 20201 | Lenias Hwenda: Let's Talk about Health in Africa -  Realising Africa´s digital health opportunity requires plug & play ICT infrastructure 

10 May 2021 | Everyone talks about how Africa´s time has come to leapfrog by taking advantage of digitisations. But this requires that Africa has adequate infrastructure to provide digital health services and that people have access to affordable data and reliable telecoms services. How well equipped are countries in Africa to benefit?