In the Twinning project “Strengthening Rwanda Food and Drug Authority’s regulatory functions related to medicinal products including vaccines”, Germany, in a consortium together with France, Belgium, and Lithuania, aims to improve the enabling environment for regulation of medicinal products and vaccines in Rwanda. The project will support Rwanda FDA in building its capacity to regulate locally manufactured pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, for the local, continental, and international markets.

Through expertise from the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute and the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Germany mainly supports Rwanda FDA in the establishment of a batch-release function for vaccines and the improvement of performing its regulatory functions with regards to the marketing of drugs and vaccines in Rwanda.

This comes in the light of significant investment by the Government of Rwanda into making Rwanda a hub for the development and production of medicines and vaccines on the African continent. While the private sector is establishing capacities in the production of mRNA vaccines in Rwanda, the Government of Rwanda is strengthening its capacities in providing a reliable, transparent, safe, and effective regulatory framework. Moreover, Rwanda was selected as the seat of the newly established African Medicines Agency of the African Union and the new African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation of the African Development Bank.

This Twinning project will help Rwanda FDA in increasing its capacities as a regulator and ultimately encourage trust of the population in vaccines and medicines manufactured in Rwanda as well as lead to further investments by producers.

The implementation of the project is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).