APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia has become the 27th African Union member state to ratify the treaty establishing the African Medicines Agency (AMA).
Members of the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament on Friday approved the motion to ratify the Treaty during their regular session.
The ratification comes more than a year after Ethiopian health minister Lia Tadess signed the agreement at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The treaty forms the second specialized AU agency next to Africa CDC with a mission to create an enabling regulatory environment for pharmaceutical sector development in the continent.
AU States including Ethiopia agreed to establish the agency to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products in Africa, Chairperson of Health Affairs Standing Committee of the parliament Workesemu Mamo noted presenting the motion.
Apart from easing access to medical products, Workesemu said the agency could play a major role in enhancing the national medicine regulatory authority’s capacity.
The House unanimously voted to approve the motion on the establishment of the agency. The next move would be to deposit the instrument of ratification with the AU Commission.
The AMA Treaty was adopted by Heads of State and Government during their Assembly on 11 Feb 2019 in Addis Ababa. It entered into force in Nov the following year, after the deposit of the 15th instrument of ratification by Cameroon.
To date, Thirty-one AU member states have signed the Treaty – of which, five are yet to ratify it. The AUC has continued to encourage all its member states to sign and ratify the Treaty in the interest of public health, safety and security.
MG/abj/APA