The Republic of Ghana becomes the sixth (6th) Member State to deposit the instrument of ratification of the African Medicines Agency (AMA). The Republic of Ghana ratified the Treaty for the establishment of AMA on 24 February 2021 in Accra, Ghana and deposited the instrument of accession, to the Commission of the African Union (AU) on 16 March 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. H.E. Amira Elfadil Mohammed, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, at the African Union Commission, received the instrument from the Ghananian delegation. AMA will be the second specialized continental health agency after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) that will enhance capacity of State Parties and AU recognized Regional Economic Communities (RECs), to regulate medical products in order to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products on the continent.

AMA will also coordinate and strengthen ongoing initiatives on the harmonization of medical products regulation and enhance the competence of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) inspectors to do so. AMA will also coordinate the collection, management, storage and sharing of information on all medical products including Substandard and falsified (SF) medical products, with all its States Parties and globally.
Speaking during the official deposit of the instrument, the Ambassador of Ghana to Ethiopia and the African Union H.E. Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah acknowledged the significant role that AMA will play in protecting the pharmaceutical companies on the continent. She reaffirmed her commitment to advocate for the signing and ratification of the AMA Treaty among other Ambassadors in her region.
In the face of a looming pandemic, the necessity of AMA has been amplified and particularly its function in coordinating joint reviews of applications for the conducting of clinical trials and providing technical support in quality control of drugs at the request of Member States which do not have the structures to carry out these examinations/controls/checks.

In addition, AMA will promote the adoption and harmonization of medical products regulatory policies and standards, as well as scientific guidelines, and coordinate exisiting regulatory harmonization efforts in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Health Organozations (RHOs).

The Commission encourages all its Member States to sign and ratify the Treaty for the establishment of AMA in the interest of public health, safety and security. The Treaty is available for signature at the Headquarters of the Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Medicines Agency, will enter into force once ratified by fifteen African Union Member States.
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For further media inquiries, please contact:
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3. Mr. Gamal Eldin Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer | Directorate of Information and Communications (DIC) | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org

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