Madbouly made his remarks during a meeting with a delegation of the African Union (AU) Commission to discuss the establishment of a headquarters for the African Medicines Agency (AMA) in Egypt, in the presence of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.

He invited the AU delegation to pay a field visit to the New Administrative Capital's diplomatic district which can host the agency's HQ, asserting the great importance Egypt attributes to the AMA as organisational platform for African pharmaceutical industries and public health improvement in Africa.

Madbouly also reviewed Egypt's drug manufacturing capacities, including technological infrastructure and long-standing expertise.

Egypt has the largest the pharmaceutical city in the Middle East and oldest vaccine center in Africa and the Middle East Africa (VACSERA), Madbouly said.

Egypt is also one of the few manufacturers of COVID vaccines, the prime minister added, noting the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) had recently been accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for home-made and foreign vaccines.

EDA Chairman Tamer Essam and Assistant Foreign Minister for African Organisations Ambassador Soha El-Gendy attended the meeting.