ArticlePharmaceutical medicine2017
Medicines Regulation in Africa: Current State and Opportunities.
Article in Pharmaceutical medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pain, policy, and the opioid dilemma in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of access, regulation, and health governance from 1990 to 2024.Health policy and planning · 2026Pooled it
- MPOX outbreak in Africa: the urgent need for local manufacturing of the vaccine and decolonized health systems.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Substandard and Falsified Medicines, Regulatory Capacity and Public Health: A Narrative Review With a Focus on Africa.Public health challenges · 2026Review
- Landscape Analysis of Existing Policies, Laws and Regulations on Antimicrobial Stewardship in 10 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- From trial site to research emerging research hub: mapping Ghana's vaccine research ecosystem, 1977-2025.Health research policy and systems · 2026Review
- New approach methodologies for next-generation risk assessment of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products.Nano convergence · 2026Review
- Moving beyond a legacy paradigm: A vision for equitable access to quality medicines in Africa.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026Article
- Barriers to accessing high-quality cancer medicines in Cameroon. A qualitative study of the views and practices of regulators and frontline healthcare providers.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Regulatory Performance of African National Medicines Regulatory Authorities Achieving WHO Maturity Level 3: Identifying Best Practices.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2026Article
- Packaging, Labeling, and Physical Characteristics and Sales Volume Assessment of Veterinary Antimicrobials in a Resource-Limited Setting: Evidence From Hawassa Town, Ethiopia.Veterinary medicine international · 2026Article
- Parkinson disease treatments on national essential medicines lists, African Region.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Decolonizing global health: Africa's pursuit of pharmaceutical sovereignty.BMC health services research · 2025Review
- Bridging the Regulatory Divide: A Dual-Pathway Framework Using SRA Approvals and AI Evaluation to Ensure Drug Quality in Developing Countries.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Mitigating inequitable access to appropriate antibiotics in low- and middle-income countries.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Review
- Antiretroviral Use for HIV Prevention During Pregnancy: The Need to Strengthen Regulatory and Surveillance Systems in Africa.Drug safety · 2025Article
- Assessment of compliance with good review practices by medicine assessors within the Zambia medicines regulatory authority.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Building functional and sustainable pharmacovigilance systems: an analysis of pharmacovigilance development across high-, middle- and low-income countries.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2025Article
- Veterinary medicinal product regulation in sub-Saharan Africa: identifying barriers and opportunities for enhancing VMP regulatory systems.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Improving the efficiency of the regulatory approvals of HIV in vitro diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries: Perspective of the IAS Industry Liaison Forum diagnostic partners.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Understanding the regulatory-procurement interface for medicines in Africa via publicly available information on standards, implementation, and enforcement in five countries.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sound regulatory systems are critical for protecting public health against use of medical products which do not meet international standards of quality, safety and efficacy. This review provides a summary of the current status of National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) in Africa, and various initiatives that have been established to improve their performance. All countries in Africa (except Sahrawi Republic), have NMRAs but their organizational set-up and functionality is variable. Some are located within Ministries of Health and others are semi-autonomous. There is progressive improvement in regulatory capacity, particularly in quality control and post-marketing surveillance, pharmacovigilance and clinical trials oversight. The African Vaccines Regulatory Forum, African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative, Network of Official Medicines Control Laboratories and WHO Prequalification Scheme have helped countries strengthen their regulatory capacities. The potential establishment of the African Medicines Agency (AMA) in 2018 is an opportunity to improve NMRAs' capacity in Africa.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.