Book Description

The Local Production and Assistance (LPA) Unit in the Regulation and Prequalification Department (RPQ), Access to Medicines and Health Products Division (MHP), WHO, supports Member States, particularly low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to strengthen sustainable local production and technology transfer to improve timely, equitable access to quality, safe and effective essential medical products. The LPA Unit provides assistance and support to Member States with an ecosystem-wide and holistic approach, such as fostering global coordination and partnerships, conducting ecosystem assessments for sustainable, quality local production, developing & implementing strategies/roadmaps, providing comprehensive capacity building and technical assistance, including for WHO Prequalification (PQ)/Emergency Use Listing (EUL), facilitating technology transfer (TT) and developing global resources on local production and TT. A landmark resolution WHA74.6 on strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies to improve access was adopted in the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly, signalling globally the important role local production plays in improving access and strengthening health security. Within this mandate, the LPA Unit, developed a series of case studies on the ecosystem for local production of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biologicals, with a focus on country context in the low- and middle-income countries. These case studies add to the existing repository of resources on strengthening local production and technology transfer of health products for countries to leverage upon when countries embark in these areas. The countries in this series are Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Tunisia. From July to September 2022, a series of interviews and consultative meetings, including a review of available literature, policies and other documents, and administration of a questionnaire, were performed. This case study is intended to report the collated information in areas such as available policies, initiatives, financing, regulatory system, patent protection system, research and development work, markets and capacity and preparedness to uptake local production of quality-assured pharmaceuticals, vaccines (including mRNA vaccines), and biologicals. The expectations and needs of these countries were also collected and included in the case study, along with proposed recommendations, for the reader to see various viewpoints towards strengthening sustainable local production and achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.