Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA
 |
Rolande Hodel, PhD |
AIDSfreeAFRICA launches Sub-Saharan Africa's First Drug Manufacturing Plants
In "Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA" Westchester resident Dr. Rolande Hodel joins Future Choices in April 2010 to recount her journey to launch a new industry in sub-Saharan Africa: the first African-owned and -operated prescription drug production facilities. Determined to do something truly significant with her newly earned PhD in chemistry, she established an NGO called AIDSfreeAFRICA, and set off for Africa to figure out how "to empower Africans to be come self-sufficient in producing pharmaceuticals." Dr. Hodel's narrative of the amazing achievements of this fledgling enterprise offers a possible blueprint for real development in impoverished countries.
A primary tenet of AIDSfreeAFRICA is that the operations must be self-sustaining, not dependent on continuing handouts from philanthropic sources. As per the Mission Statement, AIDSfreeAFRICA's "goal is the emergence of a pharmaceutical infrastructure that provides Africans with access to affordable drugs, diagnostics and tests."
Dr. Hodel muses that people who receive doctorates in hard science typically end up in comfortable corporate suites with equally comfortable salaries and career security. She decided on a different course -- to take her 
training in chemistry and put it to work in Africa. The challenges of establishing any business in countries without corporate infrastructure is formidable, but Dr. Hodel is armed with a keen sense of fun and sunny optimism as well as solid academic credentials. Her unflagging can-do attitude has brought significant results in Cameroon (West Africa).
In the AIDSfreeAFRICA brochure, we learn that "Lack of funds to purchase medicines is every [African] doctor’s biggest problem." With unrelenting enthusiasm, Dr. Hodel is bringing together the various parties who will, she feels sure, make Cameroon nearly self-sufficient in production of much needed drugs, which are sorely needed to combat malaria, TB and other common diseases which kill even more women annually than HIV/AIDS.
"Drug production is not rocket science," Dr. Hodel says. "It can be learned." Since key drugs manufactured in the U.S. have been released from patent protection, they "are available to be produced generically, meaning off-patent."
One of the projects which has already been launched in Cameroon became a reality thanks to a special foundation grant which put the floors into an extant factory that will produce essential drugs for use in hospitals and clinics all over the country.
Initially Dr. Hodel envisioned establishing production centers for anti-retroviral drugs to combat HIV/AIDS. However, as she says:
Sinking mortality rates pointed towards success in making antiretrovirals available. [thanks to infusion of funds from WHO, Gates Foundation, PEPFAR and the like.] However, infection rates did not follow that trend. The connection between HIV/AIDS infection rates and untreated STI’s (sexually transmitted infections other than HIV) emerged, strengthening AIDSfreeAFRICA’s resolve to focus on production of essential generic drugs which will be instrumental in saving the lives of even more millions women and children who might otherwise be unattended.
When is Future Choices aired in your community?
See Local TV schedule for time and channel in each participating community in Westchester County.
More about Rolande Hodel
In 2005 AIDSfreeAFRICA CEO Dr. Rolande Hodel embarked on a three-month fact-finding mission in Cameroon where she learned firsthand about essential and effective projects that empower people in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As a result of her energetic work to establish prescription drug manufacturing facilities in Cameroon, she received the received the Astellas USA Foundation award for 2009 and was a finalist in the "innovations in science and technology" section of the Buckminster Fuller Architect Design challenge. |MORE
View full footage of "Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA:"
"Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA" part 1 |
"Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA" part 2 |
"Pursuing the Dream: AIDSfreeAFRICA" part 3 |
This page last updated April 11, 2010 13:20 .