This policy brief arises from a study commissioned by the Scinnovent Centre and undertaken by ACTS under the auspices of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI). The study focused on building competitive and socially inclusive local pharmaceutical industries in West Africa and addressed five issues: affordability, human resources, research and development, intellectual property and technology transfer. This policy brief presents findings on the impact of public health procurement policies as a tool for promoting growth and performance of local pharmaceutical industries and enhancing affordability. Overall, it shows that whereas West African countries have put in place several policy incentives, the impact to local industries and social inclusion has been on the minimum. The policy brief explains why and makes recommendations on what else can be done to enhance affordability of locally manufactured medicines.
