UNIDO International Business and Investment Forum 2018

Mobilizing investment, technology and partnership opportunities for Africa's pharmaceutical industry

An international business and investment forum on “Mobilizing investment, technology and partnership opportunities for Africa’s pharmaceutical industry” gathered some 70 participants at the UN Campus in Bonn from 1 - 2 March. The Forum offered a platform for African pharmaceutical manufacturers, who have been part of a UNIDO supported mentoring process, to explore partnership opportunities with Germany pharmaceutical companies and potential investors. For the German industry the Forum further offered an introduction to African pharma markets and the business environment supplemented by presentations/discussions around three key topics: market access, access to affordable finance, access to technology. German companies learnt about the growing market opportunities that a growing middle class with increased purchasing power, as well as disease patterns beyond the pandemic diseases that resemble those in more advanced geographies ought to offer for investments in the medium term. “Players from other parts of the world – notably India, more recently from China – are intensifying their engagement in the African pharmaceuticals industry” said Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Director for Trade Investment and Innovation at the event encouraging German and other European companies to follow suit.

Almost 200 B2B conversations between pharmaceutical manufacturers from Africa and Germany/ Europe served to explore options for business partnerships in the time ahead. Financing institutions such as DEG Germany, Catalyst Principal Partners, Acumen Fund East Africa, and other major players such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were also in attendance as were the Federation of African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (FAPMA), the Southern African Generics Medicines Association (SAGMA), the Federation of East African Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Associations (FEAPM) and the West African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (WAPMA). Africa’s pharmaceutical industry was represented by companies from Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, South Africa. Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Forum was hosted by the recently established UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in Bonn, Germany, which sets out to promote investments in developing countries and foster collaboration. It formed part of a UNIDO programme – funded largely by Germany – which for more than a decade has sought to foster local pharmaceutical production (LPP) in developing and least developed countries, notably in sub-Saharan Africa.