The Republic of Sierra Leone becomes the eighth Member State of the African Union to deposit the instrument of ratification of the African Medicines Agency (AMA).
The Republic of Sierra Leone ratified the Treaty for the establishment of AMA on 28 May 2021 in Free Town, Sierra Leone and deposited the instrument of accession, to the Commission of the African Union (AU) on 14 June 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union Commission announced on Tuesday.
AMA will be the second specialized continental health agency after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) that will enhance capacity of State Parties and AU recognized Regional Economic Communities (RECs), to regulate medical products in order to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products on the continent.
“AMA will facilitate expeditious approval of products that address the health needs of the African populace, especially for diseases that disproportionately affect Africa,” the commission has announced in the statement.
In the face of a looming pandemic, the necessity of AMA has been amplified and particularly its function in coordinating joint reviews of applications for the conducting of clinical trials and providing technical support in quality control of drugs at the request of Member States which do not have the structures to carry out these examinations/controls/checks.
AMA will provide regulatory guidance, scientific opinions and common framework for the regulatory actions on medical products, as well as priority and emerging issues and pandemics in the event of a public health emergency on the continent with cross border or regional implications where new medical products are to be deployed for investigations and clinical trials.
MG/abj/APA