Kenya, Africa CDC deepen ties on pooled drug procurement, local manufacturing

Principal Secretary for Medical Services Dr. Ouma Oluga made the commitment during a courtesy call by the Africa CDC Mission, which is in the country to advance the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism (APPM) and rally support for African-made health commodities.

"Kenya remains committed to supporting continental initiatives that improve access to affordable, quality, and essential health commodities," Dr. Oluga said during the meeting.

He noted that the APPM dovetails with Kenya's ongoing health sector reforms under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) — particularly in shoring up health financing, commodity security, digital health systems and workforce development.

The APPM is a continent-wide framework that allows African countries to pool resources and jointly procure medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices — a model designed to drive down prices, strengthen supply chains and reduce Africa's heavy reliance on imported health products.

Discussions during the meeting highlighted growing momentum in expanding vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity across Africa, alongside opportunities to slash procurement costs through joint purchasing.

Kenya also reaffirmed its backing for the operationalisation of the APPM Memorandum of Understanding and the wider promotion of African-manufactured medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices.

Dr. Oluga underscored that ramping up local manufacturing was not just a health issue, but an economic one — with the potential to create jobs and drive sustainable growth across the continent.

The push comes against the backdrop of hard lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed Africa's vulnerability to global supply shocks, with the continent importing close to 99% of its vaccines and over 70% of its pharmaceuticals at the height of the crisis.

The meeting brought together officials from the Directorate of Health Products and Technologies, led by Dr. Njuguna, and the Africa CDC Desk for Health Sector Coordination, headed by Dr. Warfa, among other stakeholders.