Utano Podcast | Let's Talk about Health in Africa Lenias Hwenda

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.


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#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.


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#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.

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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.


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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.


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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 


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