The African Medicines Agency (AMA) and Medicines for Africa (MFA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen advocacy, communication and continental efforts aimed at combating the circulation of substandard and falsified medical products across Africa.
The partnership will enable AMA to leverage MFA’s expertise in public engagement and advocacy to support National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) across the continent in addressing the growing threat of unsafe medicines and strengthening public confidence in healthcare systems.
Speaking on the agreement, the Director-General of AMA, Dr Delese Mimi Darko, said stronger regulatory cooperation and public awareness were essential to protecting patients from harmful medical products.
She noted that substandard and falsified medicines continue to flourish because of fragmented supply chains and weak regulatory oversight, stressing that enhanced collaboration among African countries would help improve patient safety and access to quality medicines.
“By strengthening continental coordination and regulatory harmonisation on substandard and falsified medical products, and combining this with targeted public engagement, we will ensure that regulatory excellence translates into safer outcomes for patients and stronger public confidence in medical products,” Darko said.
The agreement comes amid growing concerns over the prevalence of poor-quality medicines in low- and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately one in every 10 medical products in these countries fails quality standards.
Experts say fragmented supply chains, inadequate regulatory oversight and weak enforcement mechanisms have created opportunities for counterfeit and substandard medicines to reach patients, exposing millions to potentially harmful or ineffective treatments while undermining confidence in health systems.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Medicines for Africa, Dr Lenias Hwenda, described the partnership as a significant step toward placing patient safety at the heart of Africa’s healthcare agenda.
“Together with the African Medicines Agency, we will undertake joint communication and advocacy programmes and initiatives that will help combat the circulation of substandard and falsified medical products in Africa,” Hwenda said.
As the first major initiative under the partnership, AMA and MFA will jointly convene the Africa Patient Safety Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, from September 16 to 17, 2026.
The summit will bring together governments, medicines regulators, healthcare institutions, industry leaders, researchers, innovators and development partners to strengthen collaboration on patient safety and develop coordinated strategies to eliminate substandard and falsified medical products across the continent.
The partnership is expected to support Africa’s broader efforts to build stronger medicine regulatory systems, improve regulatory harmonisation and ensure that safe, effective and quality-assured medical products become the standard across the continent.
