The headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa is hosting on Wednesday the first ordinary session of the Conference of States Parties to the African Medicines Agency (AMA).
During the meeting, chaired by the Senegalese Minister of Health, the report on the evaluation of bids to host the AMA headquarters will be discussed and studied.
In total, eight countries have been officially confirmed as candidates to host the headquarters of this important pan-African institution.
They are Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
The designation of the country to host AMA will be based on selection criteria after an evaluation and rating process entrusted to a team of independent African experts, established by the African Union Commission.
This team has already conducted the evaluation visits to the eight candidate countries and is preparing a comprehensive report on the ranking of the candidates according to the pre-defined selection criteria.
The Assembly of States Parties to the Treaty Establishing AMA will submit its recommendation to the 41st Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council on the hosting of the AMA headquarters.
The final decision will rest with the AU General Assembly, which will designate the country to host the permanent headquarters of AMA.
The African Medicines Agency (AMA), under the auspices of the AU, modelled on the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is a scientific and industrial regulatory agency for pharmaceuticals, capable of stimulating African integration for the production of medicines that meet the needs of African populations.
It will pool the continent’s resources and expertise to address the lack of access to quality and affordable medical products and reduce Africa’s over-reliance on imported ones.
HA/fss/as/APA