CHAIRMAN of the United Bank for Africa Group and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu, has called for incentives for big pharmaceutical companies to enable them to partner on research and development (R&D) for diseases prevalent in lower-income countries.
Speaking at the Abu Dhabi Health Forum in the United Arab Emirates, on Monday, May 13, Elumelu emphasised the need for appropriate capital allocation and investment in innovation to drive global health improvements, particularly in Africa.
According to him, big pharmaceutical companies have a role to play in ensuring a sustainable health future for all, adding that “there is a need to review the current patent system and effect reforms while still incentivising innovation.
“There also needs to be incentives for big pharma to partner on R&D for diseases from lower-income countries.
“Incentives for investing in R&D and manufacturing facilities for big pharma in developing countries are also important — so leveraging the global trade system is also an important element of global health equality.”
Elumelu further urged the delegates to leverage the global trade system to achieve global health equality, suggesting that incentives for investing in R&D and manufacturing in developing nations are crucial.
“We need to work innovatively across social sectors to achieve results. A high per cent of health care facilities in Africa do not have reliable power supply (I think it’s around 40 per cent) — without power, the health outcomes will be low,” he said.
The UBA boss added that similar measures should be taken to open up access to medical device research and manufacturing, healthcare business model innovation, and related areas.
On global health equity and implications for health outcomes, Elumelu explained that there were significant imbalances in the quality of health outcomes, excessive investments in R&D in pharma, medical devices and practices for health conditions in rich countries, while poor countries miss out.
The ICIR reports that Nigerians currently face the challenge of paying more for drugs.
Some of the reasons are ballooning inflation and the exit of pharmaceutical companies from the country because of skyrocketing costs of doing business.
For instance, in 2023, a major pharmaceutical firm, GlaxoSmithKline(GSK), producer of prescribable medicine such as Augmentin and Amoxil, disclosed its strategic plan to stop the commercialisation of its prescription medicine and vaccines in Nigeria and transition to a third-party distribution model for its pharmaceutical products, citing foreign exchange concerns.
The development, according to a report, was traced to the steady depreciation of the naira against major global currencies since President Bola Tinubu took office, along with the deregulation of the foreign exchange market, which has triggered a series of economic crises.
This was also as less than 10 per cent of Nigeria’s population had health insurance, putting much financial burden on citizens to pay out-of-pocket for health.
While highlighting his foundation’s efforts to support the healthcare system, Elumelu disclosed that his foundation has funded 700 healthcare entrepreneurs, with a gender distribution ratio of 49 per cent male to 51 per cent female.
He noted that these entrepreneurs have significantly contributed to advancing healthcare delivery in their communities and countries.
Elmelu advocates climate funding for healthcare
Speaking further on raising funds for healthcare deliveries, Elumelu said climate change had complicated access to healthcare, adding that climate funds could be allocated to address healthcare problems.
“We hear so much about available climate financing for renewable energy projects, as well as climate change adaptation and resilience projects — but what about unlocking climate funding for healthcare delivery as well, particularly on the margins where climate change is leading to new diseases, or diseases appearing in place they were not seen before.
“…With private sector innovation, startup funding from foundations and financial institutions, health care policies from national and global health systems, investments from all as well as cross-sector collaboration, we can definitely move humanity forward,“ Elumelu added.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M