PAMAfrica at the AU-EU Innovation Fair

The AU-EU Innovation Fair brings together innovators, investors, and policymakers to advance the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and other cooperation roadmaps. It showcases and fosters innovation across European, African, and Mediterranean ecosystems, with the aim of encouraging collaboration and driving growth among AU-EU partnerships. 

Held in Brussels this October, PAMAfrica was invited to the fair to deliver a pitch on Coartem Baby and the need to accelerate access to new antimalarials that fill critical treatment gaps. CALINA’s Principal Investigator Prof. Bernhards Ogutu of the Kenya Medical Research Institute delivered the pitch. 

During the two-minute presentation, he explained that while malaria medicines developed for children have helped reduce mortality rates since the turn of the century, infant deaths have remained static. He outlined how a group of ten public- and private-sector malaria R&D partners from Africa and Europe came together under the banner of the PAMAfrica consortium to address this urgent gap in malaria care. He then called on policymakers to help streamline the approval of Coartem Baby and integrate the novel treatment into global and national treatment guidelines as quickly as possible. 

PAMAfrica also hosted a booth at the Innovation Fair, where Prof. Ogutu and colleagues exchanged with other participants, including Prof. Bitange Ndemo, Kenya’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union. Kenya is currently pursuing a Science and Technology agreement with the EU to be able to serve as coordinator for GH EDCTP3-funded consortia, and Prof. Ogutu is playing a key role in advancing this effort, making the exchange particularly meaningful for both parties.