AFRICA’S booming youth population presents a tremendous opportunity. But job creation hasn’t kept pace. The continent also faces a significant burden of diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS. Fortunately, there’s a potential solution that can address both challenges simultaneously: artificial intelligence (AI).

In the rapidly evolving world of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer, poised to revolutionize various industries. Among these, the life sciences, healthcare, and pharmaceutical sectors stand to benefit immensely. For Africa, embracing AI could be the catalyst needed to leapfrog traditional development barriers, accelerate job creation for its burgeoning youth population, and strengthen the nexus between policy action, entrepreneurial scale-up, and investment optimization.

AI-designed Drugs: A Paradigm Shift

Imagine a world where AI could generate novel drugs to target any disease overnight, ready for clinical trials. What if it were able to design a drug tailored specifically for an individual’s unique genetic makeup? This isn’t a distant dream; it’s a rapidly approaching reality.

The current pharmaceutical industry is notoriously slow and costly. In 2023, the global market generated approximately $1.6 trillion in revenue, and the top ten pharmaceutical companies alone amassed nearly $550 billion. However, bringing a new drug to market typically costs over $2.5 billion and can take more than a decade, with a staggering 90% of drugs failing during clinical trials. AI is set to disrupt this status quo, ushering in an era of “pharmaceutical abundance.”

Big Data as a major catalyst

The convergence of AI with massive datasets—from gene expression to blood biomarkers—enables novel drug discovery that is exponentially faster, cheaper, and more precisely targeted. For instance, companies like Insilico Medicine are revolutionizing drug discovery processes using AI. By leveraging generative adversarial networks (GANs), Insilico can accomplish with a team of 50, what traditionally requires 5,000 people. Their AI-designed small-molecule treatments and target-discovery engines are paving the way for faster clinical trials and more effective treatments.

Similarly, Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold-3 predicts the structure and interactions of all life’s molecules with unprecedented accuracy, doubling the prediction accuracy for critical categories. This breakthrough significantly accelerates drug design and genomics research, promising transformative advancements in medicine.

Africa’s existing life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, such as Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa and Institute Pasteur in Dakar, can integrate similar AI models to accelerate their processes. By adopting AI-driven drug discovery and development techniques, these institutions can enhance their research capabilities, reduce costs, and bring new treatments to market more quickly. Countries trying to take this up could also establish AI research hubs and collaborate with global AI leaders to build local expertise and infrastructure, creating a more competitive and innovative pharmaceutical sector in Africa.

Job Creation and Economic Growth

Globally, the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors employ millions of people, with the pharmaceutical industry alone employing over 5 million people, according to recent statistics. The broader life sciences sector, encompassing biotechnology, medical devices, and related fields, employs millions more and contributes significantly to economic growth and innovation worldwide.

AI-driven advancements in the pharmaceutical sector can generate numerous high-skilled jobs, from data scientists to biotechnologists. This not only helps to address youth unemployment but also fosters a new generation of tech-savvy professionals ready to lead Africa into a future of innovation, and to develop innovative healthcare solutions, attract investment, and scale up operations.

To truly harness this potential, there is a pressing need to fundamentally transform how university education is delivered. Integrating AI-focused research, technology, entrepreneurship, and investment into the curriculum can help create the cadre of professionals needed. As such, universities need to foster partnerships with industry leaders, promote interdisciplinary studies, and offer practical, hands-on training.

Strengthening Policy, Entrepreneurship, and Investment

The lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines left a bitter taste for decision-makers across the region, prompting many African countries to accelerate initiatives aimed at bolstering their biomanufacturing capacities. Consequently, governments have realized the need to collaborate with the private sector to create policies that support AI research, data sharing, and investment in healthcare infrastructure.

In line with this, a few initiatives have been launched, including projects like the mRNA vaccine hub in South Africa and the establishment of the African Medicines Agency (AMA), which works to improve access to safe and effective medicines across Africa by strengthening regulatory systems, building local manufacturing capacity, and expediting approvals for essential medications.

Entrepreneurial scale-up is equally crucial. By fostering a culture of innovation and providing support mechanisms such as specialized venture studios, sandboxes, accelerators, and funding opportunities, Africa can nurture homegrown solutions to its unique healthcare challenges. Investment optimization, through both domestic and international funding, will be key to scaling these innovations and ensuring they have a tangible impact on the continent’s healthcare landscape.

The AfCFTA, Regional Economic Communities and market integration initiatives offer a significant opportunity for stakeholders in the life sciences sector. This includes initiatives such as the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Goods, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Innovation Fund, the East African Community (EAC) Regional Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan of Action, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Investment Policy Framework. Unfortunately, most growth-ready entrepreneurs are unaware of these instruments, thereby hampering their own scale-up processes.

It is clear that the region will require organizations that can generate the actionable data, research, training, and projects needed to guide policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, universities, and other players whose actions will need to be optimized. Kasi Afrique is an initiative designed to accelerate job creation by accelerating the production of data, research, policy directives, investment models, and scale-up pathways that various stakeholders can use to scale-up ventures and businesses in Africa.

About the author

Gilbert Manirakiza is the co-founder of Kasi Afrique and CEO of The Newmark Group