Vizuri leverages deep industry expertise to strengthen Africa’s pharmaceutical sector.
The Council and Advisory Panel of Vizuri have worked in the industry for many decades and have a deep understanding of why Africa has struggled in the past to strengthen its pharmaceutical sector.
Vizuri has identified 6 key market failures to create a competitive industry.
By partnering with regulators, purchasers, funders and manufacturers, Vizuri will focus on:
01
Despite high need and / or demand, little to no supply is available for these products in most African markets.
02
Existing African manufacturers have failed to expand their marketing and sales efforts beyond their home countries. Consequently, high volume generics, though relatively simple to produce, have not reached scaled production.
03
Most innovative medicines (e.g., oncology drugs, monoclonal antibodies, analogue insulins) are inaccessible to African patients as they are unaffordable and / or unavailable in emerging markets.
04
High-volume needs for HIV, TB, malaria, and RMNCH, along with donor procurement of essential medicines, create demand for African manufacturing. However, donors primarily procure from Southeast Asia (India and China) due to procurement models and third-party quality requirements.
05
These are high-demand, high-volume essentials for manufacturing, but Indian and Chinese manufacturers have monopolised the global market.
06
Private sector purchase volumes, though significant, lack demand aggregation and financially viable long-term agreements. These purchases are thus, devoid of incentives for African manufacturers to risk investing in their supply capacity.
Vizuri will address the 6 key market failures through 4 main areas of work:
All closed state
Aggregation
To aggregate offtake commitments, supply and inputs.
Licensing
To support voluntary licensing, second brand development, dossier acquisition and transfer of source.
All closed state
Financing
Regulatory
To accelerate the harmonisation of regulations across Africa and enable quality standards compliance.
Vizuri will apply 10 levers of change:
AGGREGATION
- Aggregating offtake commitments: Vizuri can ameliorate manufacturer risk by proving the demand before they seek investment.
- Aggregating supply: By aggregating capacity across multiple manufacturing sites, Vizuri will be able to ensure on-time, in-full delivery to buyers, enabling African manufacturers to participate in major contracts with large volume buyers.
- Aggregating inputs: Vizuri will aggregate the buying power of the African manufacturing community for the procurement of capital equipment, API, excipients, and packaging – wherever possible, sourcing from African enterprises.
LICENSING
- Voluntary Licenses (VL): Vizuri will actively pursue VLs through partnerships with MPP (Medicines Patent Pool), AtMF (Access to Medicine Foundation) and IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations), and directly with innovators. Vizuri will also assist with the negotiation and management of technology transfers.
- Second brand development: This will enable access pricing for innovative products, support the transfer of the IP when patents lapse and later, allow a logical and low risk staged transfer of manufacturing after establishing the brand, building demand and growing offtake.
- Dossier acquisition and transfer of source: Vizuri will purchase dossiers of products already registered in African markets and will progressively transition the manufacturing source of those dossiers to African manufacturers.
FINANCING
- Capital finance: Vizuri will assist manufacturers to engage with regional and global players to enable manufacturers to access necessary investment and working capital.
- Innovative financial instruments: Vizuri will leverage a range of financial instruments and partners to enable manufacturers to access concessionary rates and payment terms, as well as de-risk and rebase costings using grant capital. Vizuri will also work to reduce manufacturers’ risk from unpredictable market dynamics using instruments such as volume guarantees and initial price subsidies.
REGULATORY
- Harmonising regulations across Africa: Vizuri will ensure that manufacturers remain informed, agile and responsive to the accelerating changes in requirements and the opportunities they present.
- Quality standards compliance: In partnership with organisations like AMA (African Medicines Agency), USP (United States Pharmacopeia), and FHI 360 (formerly Family Health International), Vizuri will support African manufacturers in their understanding, capacity development, applications and audits to enable them to serve the volume markets of donors, helping to stimulate South-South trade and eventually global exports.
To create an efficient pharmaceutical value chain, Vizuri will manage the full breadth of risk factors from quality to financial and reputational, as well as ensure value for money for all stakeholders. Vizuri will prioritise results-based operating models that are patient-centric and demand driven.
Additional enabling activities:
- Vizuri centralises skills transfer, knowledge sharing and the understanding of new technologies in sourcing, API supply and manufacturing.
- Vizuri collaborates closely with the regulatory upliftment and harmonisation work of the World Health Organisation, AUDA-NEPAD (African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development), the AMA (African Medicines Agency) and AMRH (African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization), Africa CDC (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention), the RESUs (Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Units) and the NRAs (National Regulatory Authorities) and ensure that manufacturers are fully informed and capacitated to maximise their export reach.
- Vizuri supports manufacturers in their market research, business case development, licensing, fund raising, build-out, technical transfer and operations.
- Key to Vizuri’s success is its networking abilities to source opportunities, secure commitments and match them to qualified manufacturers.
- Vizuri’s role also includes convening manufacturer forums and conferences such as AMMTEC. Visit ammtec.org.za to find out more about this unique, African manufacturing-led event.
Join us in creating a thriving African pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.
