eprintid: 10045546 rev_number: 26 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/04/55/46 datestamp: 2018-03-21 15:56:43 lastmod: 2021-09-17 22:20:30 status_changed: 2018-03-21 15:56:43 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Mackintosh, M creators_name: Mugwagwa, J creators_name: Banda, G creators_name: Tibandebage, P creators_name: Tunguhole, J creators_name: Wangwe, S creators_name: Njeru, MK title: Health-industry linkages for local health: reframing policies for African health system strengthening ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C05 divisions: J39 keywords: Local production of medicines, Africa, access to medicines, health system, health-industry linkages, local health, global health note: Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: The benefits of local production of pharmaceuticals in Africa for local access to medicines and to effective treatment remain contested. There is scepticism among health systems experts internationally that production of pharmaceuticals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can provide competitive prices, quality and reliability of supply. Meanwhile low-income African populations continue to suffer poor access to a broad range of medicines, despite major international funding efforts. A current wave of pharmaceutical industry investment in SSA is associated with active African government promotion of pharmaceuticals as a key sector in industrialization strategies. We present evidence from interviews in 2013–15 and 2017 in East Africa that health system actors perceive these investments in local production as an opportunity to improve access to medicines and supplies. We then identify key policies that can ensure that local health systems benefit from the investments. We argue for a ‘local health’ policy perspective, framed by concepts of proximity and positionality, which works with local priorities and distinct policy time scales and identifies scope for incentive alignment to generate mutually beneficial health–industry linkages and strengthening of both sectors. We argue that this local health perspective represents a distinctive shift in policy framing: it is not necessarily in conflict with ‘global health’ frameworks but poses a challenge to some of its underlying assumptions. date: 2018-05 date_type: published publisher: OXFORD UNIV PRESS official_url: https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czy022 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1539976 doi: 10.1093/heapol/czy022 lyricists_name: Mugwagwa, Julius lyricists_id: JTMUG87 actors_name: Mugwagwa, Julius actors_id: JTMUG87 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Health Policy and Planning volume: 33 number: 4 pagerange: 602-610 pages: 9 issn: 1460-2237 citation: Mackintosh, M; Mugwagwa, J; Banda, G; Tibandebage, P; Tunguhole, J; Wangwe, S; Njeru, MK; (2018) Health-industry linkages for local health: reframing policies for African health system strengthening. Health Policy and Planning , 33 (4) pp. 602-610. 10.1093/heapol/czy022 <https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol%2Fczy022>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10045546/1/HPP%20article%20published%20March%2018.pdf