African ministers, others seek funding for new drugs

Adoption of Ethiopia example urgedSTAKEHOLDERS, including African health and science ministers, have urged governments on the continent toincrease funding for the manufacture of new drugs and other health products.Besides, impressed with what she saw in the Ethiopia's efforts towards a green economy and fight against carbon emission, the Nigerian Minister of Environment, Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, has called for collaboration with the country.During a courtesy visit to Tewolde Berhan GebreEgziabher , the Director General of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority, which is an equivalent of her ministry in Nigeria, Mailafia, said the Ethiopian experience was worthy of emulation.The minister who took a break yesterday from the ministerial meeting on Rio+20 holding at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, to meet with her Ethiopian counterpart, reiterated environmental challenges facing Nigeria, which includederosion, coastal and carbon emission.Speaking yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the fourth African Network for Drugs and Diagnostic Innovation (ANDI) Stakeholders' Meeting and Donor Conference, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Jennifer Kargbo stressed the need for projects to secure increased African financial support for drug and vaccine research.She noted that though development agencies like the World Health Organisation and European Union had contributed appreciable funds for ANDI's objectives which include leveraging existing capacity to support collaboration among institutions and countries, African governments should boost efforts through more funding.Earlier, Mailafia had delivered a speech, which drew a loud applause from those present.Saying that there was the need for Africa to speak with one voice, Mailafia said the time for talk was over and the continent, and the rest of the world, should take serious action on agreed commitments.Citing the case of erosion in the Southeast, the minister said that the situation was so bad that one could take a road to the office in the morning and by the time of coming back after work, the road had succumbed to erosion.She also recalled how she was in a chopper withPresident Goodluck Jonathan during the recent flood in Ibadan, Oyo State, and how she discovered that 87 per cent of the city had no drainage system.
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