Executive Summary
The Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry (KAPI) is a membership organization, established in the late 1960s, representing biopharmaceutical manufacturers (or their local representatives) that through research invent and develop medicines and technologies (e.g., Biopharmaceuticals, Vaccine Healthcare, Medical devices, Diagnostics) that significantly improve people’s lives. KAPI represents the industry voice and promotes efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that medical products and healthcare technologies of the highest quality can be readily available for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases.
Weekly Brief:
This is a roundup of news allied to the biopharmaceutical industry with a bearing on our mission to improve access to lifesaving health products and technologies for positive health outcomes.
- COVAX Publishes first interim distribution forecast for COVID-19 Vaccines aimed at providing governments and health systems with the information they need to plan their national vaccination programmes. (GAVI| COVAX| Reuters |COVAX Supply Forecast)
- AstraZeneca and Oxford University expect to have new generation vaccine against COVID-19 variants by autumn this year. (Reuters)
- The African Union urges for equitable vaccine access and debt relief for member countries. (CGTN)
- Mike Bloomberg and Dr. Tedros Adhanom call for global focus on Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) to save lives from COVID-19. This came after confirmation of Bloomberg as the WHO Global Ambassador for NCDs and Injuries for the third term.(Mirage News)
- The World Cancer Declaration: time to consolidate wins and work towards 2025. (Lancet Oncology)
- The biopharmaceutical industry supports the establishment of African Medicines Agency (AMA) and calls on governments to ratify the AMA Treaty towards a unified continental regulatory framework. (IFPMA)
- GSK and CureVac to start working on a next generation vaccine targeting emerging variants of the coronavirus with likelihood of being ready next year. (PharmaPhorum)
- A new trial testing whether giving people two different COVID vaccines as first and second doses can give effective protection as using the same formulation has started. (CITYA.M)
- A study shows that the Pfizer vaccine single shot is 90% effective after 21 days. (Medical Express)
- Ebonyi State, South East Nigeria launched a pharmaceutical manufacturing park “Pharmacity” aimed at being the hub of quality medicine production in the whole of West Africa. (Pharma News)
- Johnson & Johnson applies to the US FDA for Emergency Use Authorization for their vaccine which was reported to have a 66% efficacy in international clinical trials (The Wall Street Journal)
- Africa expects to start receiving millions of vaccine doses from COVAX in February as reported by the WHO Africa Regional Office Director. (WHO |CGTN)