Landscape and opportunities for active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing in developing African economies

Abstract

This review will highlight the opportunities that exist in the localization of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies within an African context.

Flow Chemistry Supporting Access to Drugs in Developing Countries

“…Communicable diseases such HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are the leading causes of death in developing countries whereas developed countries are hugely affected by non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases [1][2][3][4]. According to recent United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and World Health Organisation (WHO) data, 30% of world's population has no access to life saving medicines with the number going as high as 50% in developing economies such as Africa [5][6][7][8][9]. Unfortunately, adequate treatment for these serious communicable diseases is beyond the capacity of most developing countries with the consequence of huge health burden, which impedes economic development [10].…”

“…1) is an antiretroviral drug originally marketed by GSK, used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B [6,12,23,24]. It is potent for both HIV-1 and HIV-2, and is commonly used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs such as zidovudine and abacavir [6,23]. However, this important drug is still not easily accessible in developing countries [6,23,24].…”

“…It is potent for both HIV-1 and HIV-2, and is commonly used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs such as zidovudine and abacavir [6,23]. However, this important drug is still not easily accessible in developing countries [6,23,24]. As part of the on-going research towards the development of cost-effective routes for important medicines and capacity building for local manufacturing in Africa using flow chemistry technology with the grand vision improving drug accessibility, the Watts group in South Africa demonstrated a three-stage continuous flow synthesis of lamivudine [24,25].…”

Total Synthesis of Glipizide and Glibenclamide in Continuous Flow

“…Its major advantages over the conventional batch process are faster reactions, easy scale up, cleaner products, safer reactions, easy integration of typically separate processes and better quality control; the FDA are highly supportive of this technology as it facilitates better quality control of the final products. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Furthermore, the technology also enables researchers to both evaluate and produce synthetic intermediates and products that would otherwise be inaccessible using conventional batch techniques. Various multistep continuous flow synthetic procedures for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) have been reported.…”

Organic chemistry in South Africa

“…I would further suggest that there is much "low-hanging fruit" in terms of academic involvement in the local pharmaceutical industry -one just has to recognize that academia should get involved in terms of the goals of the new National Health Initiative, 3 particularly with respect to the application of disruptive technologies involved in, amongst others, the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). 4 Secondly, the general scientific goodwill from the international community that exists towards South Africa needs to be harnessed and extended to generate more knowledge-sharing opportunities. In addition, relationships with other African countries should be developed even more, specifically to address African challenges through neighbourly collaborations in order to provide organic chemistry solutions.…”