by pain management. In addition to high morbidity and high mortality the personal toll on the health of the residents caused by the lack of medicines poses a threat to the local economie, food security and education amongst other, because the sick adult is not able to go to work, the women can not attend to here crops and children, especially the girl-child has to stay home from school to take care of a sick parent and other siblings. AIDSfreeAFRICA’s project to help African start their own local drug production is a first. It involves a collaborative effort spearheaded by AIDSfreeAFRICA, the Cameroonian Baptist Convention (“CBC”), the pharmaceutical company Hoffman-LaRoche and Action Medeor, a German non-profit organization and Rotary International. The primary goal of this project is to develop a facility for spin-coating Roche’s second line of AIDS drugs at the CBC location in Cameroon and to blister pack the drugs. What is done so far is that non-profits raise money, buy drugs and ship whatever they get into Africa. The Clinton Foundation is known to negotiate to lower drug prices, but then they follow the same model. Some people collect left over drugs from medicine cabinets and ship those to Africa. President Bush’s PEPFAR, the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS raises money and buys drugs in India and has them shipped to Afric. But no matter how many organizations ship whatever amount – it will never be the right amount, the right kind at the right place a the right time. Local production can react to the need of the local population.

Describe the current stage of your initiative and your implementation plan over the next three years

The project has two major goals:

1) Proof of concept: In 2005, Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, the United Nations Agency responsible for AIDS in Africa , told Dr. Hodel that drug production in Africa is not possible. More over, foundations want to see a track record of drug production before even considering a grant application. AIDSfreeAFRICA was told over and over: “start production, and we’ll fund you”. That’s putting the cart before the horse. $100,000 from the Buckminstewr Challenge will buy a blisterpack machine and Malaria drugs in bulk from India. Cameroonians at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention can blister pack the Malaria drugs, immediately creating an impact and saving lives, creating an income from sales and – although not strickly “production”, blisterpackaging and selling drugs would convince a good number of foundations to give grants because the impact will be immediate and convincing. It takes only six malaria pills to safe a child.

2) Networking and advocating towards the start of production: the goal is to reach a critical mass. Further expanding the network of supporters, the share of what each needs to contribute decreases and production start becomes real. What if we have not only Hoffmann LaRoche but also Jahnson&Johnson, Merck, Pfizer and Glaxo-Smith-Klein? What if we have the Clinton, Gates, Rockefeller Foundations in addition to Rotary, Weyman and New Tudor Foundation? What if we make it on the front page of the New York Times? Could we start production sooner if the Cameroonian government would work with the World Bank to get a start-up loan? Production of drugs in Africa is not a question of “IF” but at this point “WHEN”. In less than three years AIDSfreeAFRICA will make it happen in Africa.

Describe how your strategy meets the entry criteria ("What We're Looking For")

The Mission of AIDSfreeAFRICA is to bring together a community of professionals dedicated to empower Africans to be come self-sufficient in producing pharmaceuticals. This mission fullfills the Buckminster Fuller challenge criteria. The proposal is comprehensive, contributiong to each of the eight United Nation Millennium Development Goals. It obviously reduces child mortality, improves maternal health, combats HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. It also has an impact on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, empower women, environmental sustainability and the development of a global partnership for development.
This proposal is anticipatory. 80% of generic drugs for Sub-Saharan Africa are produced cheaply in India. Joining the World Trade Organization India agreed to recognize intenational intellectual property rights. This project uses an empowerment model, “teach them how to fish” is the design principal.
According to Jeffery Sachs, Columbia University, development occurs when a product is produced and sold. n Cameroon people finally believed that the arrival of antiretrovirals had an impact whernn they saw funeral parlors closing. Although not viable in the US used to mega ton production, small scale production is feasible and viable in Africa. AIDSfreeAFRICA will be replicating this model in other countries.

Describe the qualifications and experience of you and/or your team and your ability to execute your implementation plan

Pharmaceutical production is achievable. Dr. Hodel’s work in Cameroon for the past three years has brought together US and European Pharmaceutical companies, non-profit organizations, academia, the Cameroonian government and most important the Cameroonian professionals, pharmacists, engineers and technicians, who will carry out the work. The project is at a crucial juncture where these diverse groups have to sit down and agree on the plan for successful implementation and financing. HoffmannLa Roche’s Technology Transfer Initiative provides the know-how, training, equipment and start up money. The Cameroonian Baptist Convention provides the production site, pharmacists and technicians, the non-profits such as Action Medeor and Rotary will raise additional funding. Academia will monitor and document the progress and success. AIDSfreeAFRICA will keep bringing everyone together, keeping the vision alive, focusing on public relation and marketing.

The US Ambassador Janet Garvey told us that in addition to creating highly qualified jobs, “this work will make Cameroonians so proud when they learn that their country is producing drugs.”
Pharmaceutical production in Cameroon would be a first on a continent of 490 million people, that has no pharmaceutical production to speak of aside from Aspen Pharma in South Africa.