At the US-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022 and as part of the newly issued PEPFAR five-year strategy, Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, announced bold goals to procure 15 million HIV tests from African manufacturers by 2025 and procure first-line antiretrovirals for at least two million clients from manufacturers on the continent by 2030. To reach these goals, PEFPAR is planning to review procurement policies, regulatory pathways, and potential financing mechanisms to incentivize the sustainable scale-up of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in Africa.

This announcement underscores the U.S. Government’s commitment to ensuring equitable access to critical HIV products and marks a critical and concrete commitment from one of the world’s largest procurers of health commodities. PEPFAR’s commitment may well serve as a catalyst for additional commitments from other donors and multilateral organizations. During this event, we will discuss whether PEPFAR’s move may have the potential to serve as a tipping point for catalyzing long-term sustainable support for African manufacturing of quality-assured health products.   

Join the Corporate Council on Africa, the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, and U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) for this virtual event that will feature opening remarks from Dr.  Nkengasong, along with a distinguished panel to explore PEPFAR’s goal of fostering more robust health products manufacturing capacity on the African continent.

Participants in this virtual event will explore policy, financing, and regulatory measures needed to support PEPFAR in meeting its goals and explore how commitments like these can pave the way for long-term sustainable health products manufacturing in Africa. This discussion will crowd in diverse perspectives from U.S. and African government and private sector leaders to examine where opportunity exists and what challenges must be addressed to create an enabling environment for the production of rapid diagnostics and first-line ARVs in Africa.  This high-level discussion will help inform PEPFAR’s forthcoming roadmap for achieving its regional production goals.