Continuous flow synthesis of pharmaceuticals in Africa

Abstract

Africa has a huge disease burden due to its poverty, geography, poor health care and practices, thus drawing the continent from its aspiration of guaranteeing its citizens high standard of living, quality of life and well-being as envisaged by Africa's agenda 2063. It over relies on the European and Asian pharmaceutical market for the import of APIs used in the manufacture of most of the drugs of importance. This often affects accessibility of medicines due to unreliable supply chains and high costs, which exerts a huge financial burden on many states. This can be alleviated by investing in local drug manufacturing. Since the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in not well developed, Africa can take advantage of the latest technologies such as continuous flow chemistry to establish future proof and state-of-The-Art manufacturing infrastructure. This review highlights some of the work done in continuous flow API synthesis in Africa to show its potential application in the local pharmaceutical industry.