The Group Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, has called on global leaders and Africa in particular to unlock improvements and equality in healthcare by leveraging the power of entrepreneurship, innovation, and working across sectors to make a difference.
Addressing delegates at the Abu Dhabi Health Forum held in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, Mr Elumelu said the private and public sectors, as well as the development world, need to prioritise appropriate capital allocation and investments in innovation (health research and health technology / IT) to drive global improvements in health outcomes — across Africa.
Tony Elumelu Foundation according to him, has funded 700 healthcare entrepreneurs, with a gender distribution ratio of 49 percent male to 51 percent female, “but this is just a tip of the iceberg. These entrepreneurs have gone on to help communities and even their countries in advancing health care delivery in Africa.”
He further observed that it is not just early-stage entrepreneurs and companies that make a difference. Big pharmaceutical companies also have a role to play here.
To ensure a sustainable health future for all, Elumelu suggested that there is a need to review the current patent system and effect reforms while still incentivizing innovation. “There also needs to be incentives for big pharma to partner on Research and Development (R&D) for diseases from lower-income countries.
“Incentives for investing in R&D and manufacturing facilities for big pharma in developing countries is also important — so leveraging the global trade system is also an important element of global health equality, “ he stated.
Even beyond pharma, Elumelu added that the same steps should be taken to open up
access to medical device research and manufacturing, healthcare business model innovation, and so on.
Focusing on “Global Health Equity and implications for health outcomes, “ the founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation explained that there are significant imbalances in the quality of health outcomes, excessive investments in R&D in pharma, medical devices and practices for health conditions in rich countries, while poor countries miss out.
But he believes that the quality of healthcare in the world’s poorest countries can have an impact on the richest countries, stressing that the world is interconnected, and climate change is making transmission happen faster.
For example, he recalls that Covid-19 started in China and quickly spread to all parts of the world.
“The lesson here is that we should be interested in global health equity and not just national health because poor health outcomes affect all everywhere.
“Speaking frankly, Africa is behind, with limited budgets and poor healthcare infrastructure, “ Elumelu stated.
Detailing the impact of Tony Elumelu Foundation investment, training, and network in healthcare entrepreneurship across Africa, he said some of these representative beneficiaries include: Ritalee Monde who is providing affordable medical oxygen in Zimbabwe. Through her company Leemed Supplies, she is making medical oxygen accessible at one-third of the market price, even providing it for free to those unable to afford it, added to her aspirations to establish a medical oxygen production plant, which Monde hopes to meet the needs of all 212 hospitals and 1,684 clinics in Zimbabwe while generating more employment opportunities.
Also, a 2018 beneficiary, Giancarlo Beukes is the founder of Impulse Biomedicals, a multi-award-winning South African medical device start-up aimed at increasing access to life-saving technologies through affordable innovation.
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He said Impulse Biomedicals adopts a “Frugal Bio design” approach –developing commercially sustainable and high-impact medical devices specifically tailored for developing countries.
The company’s focus spans two key areas: paediatric asthma and emergency treatment for anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction.
According to Elumelu, one of Beukes’ pioneering innovations, ZiBiPen, is a user-friendly, reloadable auto-injector for emergency adrenaline delivery to treat anaphylaxis.
For paediatric asthma patients, Impulse created the Easy Squeezy sleeve that reduces the inhalation force of standard inhalers by two-thirds, making them significantly easier to use.
He also believes that the global renewable energy sector, both thermal and hydro energy sectors should step in to address the massive energy deficiency in Africa to realize health outcomes in Africa.
Speaking of the link between renewable energy and healthcare, he said the two are also linked via climate change.
“We hear so much about available climate financing for renewable energy projects, as well as climate change adaptation and resilience projects — but what about unlocking climate funding for healthcare delivery as well — particularly on the margins where climate change is leading to new diseases, or diseases appearing in place they were not seen before.
“As healthcare issues are becoming more severe due to climate change, how can climate funds be accessed to address health care as well? With private sector innovation, startup funding from foundations and financial institutions, health care policies from national and global health systems, investments from all as well as cross-sector collaboration, we can definitely move humanity forward,“ Elumelu stated.