Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the inequity in access to affordable healthcare in LMICs by examining the impact of pharmaceutical value chains on industrial capability development and public health security challenges in African countries.

Paper long abstract:

World Health Organization (WHO) suggests local production of quality medicines as one of the ways to ensure reliable access to affordable medicines (WHO, 2011). However, due to intense competition from global suppliers, there is a growing concern about ‘hollowing out’ local production capabilities in African countries. In this regard, it is imperative to take cognisance of the implications of growing reliance on the supply of generics, biosimilars, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from suppliers of a few countries – primarily Indian and Chinese – on the public health security in African countries and indigenous learning curve (Ekeigwe, 2019). At the same time, there is an increasing consensus to create policy pathways to support local pharmaceutical manufacturing to ensure health security (Chaudhuri, 2016). Against this backdrop, this paper explores the dynamics of the global value chain framework and local production, focusing on opportunities and challenges to manufacturing and access to oncology medicines in African countries. It assesses the role of the global value chain in the development, manufacturing and access to affordable anticancer drugs in LMICs. Using multiple data sources, our research explores the oncology value chain in the pharmaceutical industry and investigates its implication for access to oncology medicines for the local population in African countries. Our findings suggest an urgent need for setting up appropriate governance structures to make global value chains deliver just and equitable outcomes for local populations of countries that are receiving the end of value chains.