Manufacturers, suppliers, investors, and policymakers from across the continent will gather at the third African Healthcare Manufacturing Trade Exhibition and Conference (AHMTEC 2026), to be held from 26 to 28 October at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel in central Addis Ababa.

The 2025 edition in Accra drew 264 participants from 18 countries, including 60 manufacturers.

The event is hosted by the Federation of African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (FAPMA), Vizuri Health Dynamics, and the Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies Manufacturing Industries Sectorial Association (EPMSMISA), in partnership with Health 4 Development.

Under the theme “Industrialise to Commercialise”, AHMTEC 2026 will focus on moving African pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing beyond capacity building towards production that competes in regional and global markets. Sessions run on two tracks.

The first, Industrialise, covers the environment in which manufacturers operate: policy, regulation and incentives.

The second track, Commercialise, covers the enterprise itself: operations, portfolio strategy and market access.

Topics include regulatory harmonisation and the African Medicines Agency, pooled procurement, financing and investment readiness, pricing and procurement policy, diagnostics manufacturing and active pharmaceutical ingredient development.

The programme opens on the evening of Monday 26 October with a ceremony and welcome reception among the exhibitors. Sessions run on 27 and 28 October.

Ann-Marie Hosang-Archer, Chair of the AHMTEC 2026 Secretariat, said the 2026 event builds on the two previous editions.

“AHMTEC brings manufacturers, regulators, policymakers and investors into one room to bridge the gap between industrialisation and commercial success,” she said.

“People come here to make deals, challenge norms that are not working, influence policy, share what has and has not worked, and build the solutions that move African manufacturing forward.”

The 2026 programme will report progress on initiatives launched at AHMTEC 2025 in Accra, Ghana.

These include the Accra Declaration, in which African manufacturers set out their calls to action and commitments on market access, regulatory harmonisation and coordinated investment, and the African Manufacturing Market Intelligence & Network Analysis (AMMINA) platform, a searchable database of more than 750 health manufacturers and 2,500+ products across 18 countries.

AHMTEC 2025 also hosted the launch of Unitaid’s US$50 million Regional Manufacturing for Equitable Access in Africa (RMEA) portfolio, which supports African manufacturers in producing quality-assured medicines and diagnostics for HIV, malaria and maternal health.

Registration for AHMTEC 2026 is open at ahmtec.org Exhibition stands can be booked through the conference organisers, Upavon Management, at info@ahmtec.org.

AHMTEC 2026 is the platform to advance this self-reliance at commercial scale.