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Foundation's new report reveals opportunities for generic medicine manufacturers to bridge access gaps in Africa
Africa's healthcare landscape is evolving rapidly, with rising demand for medicines alongside growing investment and regional integration reshaping the market. This new report examines how eight generic medicine manufacturers are responding to the continent's shifting healthcare needs and seizing new opportunities to improve medicine availability. It also identifies the structural barriers that continue to constrain access – and the actions needed to build a more resilient and equitable pharmaceutical ecosystem across the continent.
The rising burden of non-communicable diseases – including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer – alongside longstanding health challenges is reshaping Africa’s pharmaceutical landscape. Â
Generic manufacturers are working to boost medicine supply through local manufacturing, supply chain diversification, portfolio expansion and new partnership models – but fragmented procurement, uneven financing and disparate regulatory systems continue to constrain progress.Â
The report highlights practical opportunities for manufacturers, governments and global health partners to build more resilient medicine supply across Africa, emphasising the importance of coordinated action across stakeholders.Â
Africa's healthcare needs are changing rapidly: while infectious diseases and maternal health conditions remain pressing priorities, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is transforming the landscape, with more patients requiring long-term, continuous care. While progress differs widely between markets, access to essential medicines remains highly uneven: across Africa, only one in two people living with type 1 diabetes has reliable access to insulin, while fragmented procurement systems continue to restrict access to cardiovascular medicines in many countries. Without action, these challenges are likely to intensify, with NCDs poised to become the leading cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa in the next five years. Â
At the same time, efforts to strengthen pharmaceutical manufacturing, growing momentum towards regulatory harmonisation, increased regional trade and greater investment in the sector are creating a more enabling environment for medicine production and supply. Against this backdrop, generic medicine manufacturers have an opportunity to deepen their existing presence in African markets, building on favourable market conditions to reach more patients and expand access to essential medicines. Producing around 80% of medicines by volume globally, these companies already underpin access to many affordable treatments across African markets. A new report from the Access to Medicine Foundation explores how a cross-section of eight generic manufacturers of different sizes and business models are responding to the continent's changing healthcare ecosystem – and what will be needed to expand reliable access to medicines in the coming years.
What does the report find?Â
Generic manufacturers are already adapting to Africa's changing healthcare landscape. Across the eight companies analysed – Aspen Pharmacare, Cipla Ltd, Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries, EVA Pharma, Hikma Pharmaceuticals plc, Sothema, Universal Corporation Ltd and Viatris Inc. – the report finds manufacturers are strengthening supply resilience, expanding their portfolios to capture new therapeutic areas and adopting new partnership models to build up local manufacturing capabilities. However, progress varies considerably between manufacturers – as do the approaches they are taking, reflecting differences in their size, technical capabilities and commercial models. What’s more, significant structural barriers continue to limit what manufacturers can achieve on their own.  Â
Three key trends
Manufacturers are pursuing a range of strategies in response to Africa’s evolving and unmet healthcare needs:Â
Implementing strategies to bolster the availability and reliability of medicine supply
Such strategies include investing in the local production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) where possible, diversifying sourcing arrangements to mitigate supply risks where localisation isn’t feasible, and seeking out long-term supply agreements for finished products to provide greater certainty over future demand.Â
Expanding their portfolios as healthcare needs evolve
Several manufacturers are expanding into priority NCD areas including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes while continuing to supply medicines essential for infectious diseases and maternal health conditions, which have been mired by long-standing access constraints. However, the report finds that manufacturers continue to encounter significant barriers, with structurally fragmented markets, unpredictable demand and complex manufacturing requirements hindering progress in some therapeutic areas. Although a range of strategies are helping manufacturers overcome these challenges, from technology transfer partnerships to the pursuit of World Health Organization prequalification to secure long-term purchasing commitments, more coordinated action amongst stakeholders will be needed to address the continent’s unmet needs in ways that are both commercially viable and sustainable.Â
Leveraging new and diverse partnerships to nurture capability development and growth
While market access and distribution agreements have stayed the course, the report notes that a new generation of partnerships is emerging, centred on building long-term manufacturing capabilities through technology transfer, regulatory support and localised production. While these models have significant potential to bolster sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa, the report emphasises that moving from initial collaboration to partnerships that build a true foundation for manufacturer-led growth – shifting strategic control to companies and ultimately unlocking expansion into new product portfolios and markets – will require continued investment and sustained support.Â
“Africa’s healthcare needs are evolving, and generic manufacturers will play an important role in determining whether medicine supply evolves alongside them. Our research shows encouraging progress – from growing local manufacturing to the emergence of new partnership models – but also highlights that companies cannot succeed in isolation. Coordinated action between stakeholders will be essential to ensuring affordable, life-saving medicines can reach patients consistently, sustainably and at scale.”
Next steps – building a resilient African healthcare ecosystemÂ
The report concludes that generic manufacturers have an increasingly important opportunity to help serve Africa's evolving healthcare needs but cannot do so in isolation. While companies can continue to strengthen supply resilience, expand into underserved therapeutic areas and invest in the capabilities needed for more advanced manufacturing partnerships, effective progress will hinge on a more supportive operating environment. Â
To help create this environment, the report identifies eight opportunities for manufacturers and other stakeholders across the pharmaceutical landscape to act on. These include creating better demand visibility, supporting more affordable, predictable medicine supply, coordinating procurement, harmonising regulatory practices and reducing fragmentation, ensuring that capital flows where it's most needed and minimising regulatory bottlenecks and red tape. Together, these actions can create more predictable markets for manufacturers while improving the availability and affordability of essential medicines for patients across Africa.Â
