S2 Ep 6: From Raw Materials to Intellectual Property: Africa’s Next Frontier, with Dr Yaw Bediako

In Episode 6 of The Bold New Normal Podcast, Lucy Quist sits down with Dr Yaw Bediako, immunologist, entrepreneur, Co-founder and CEO of Yemaachi Biotech, and Dean for Research and Innovation at Ashesi University, for a powerful conversation about science, entrepreneurship, intellectual property and the future of Africa.

Yaw's journey takes us from helping Ghana understand COVID-19 through genomic sequencing to building an African biotech company tackling one of the biggest gaps in global medicine: the severe underrepresentation of African populations in genomic research.

But this conversation goes much further than healthcare.

Why does Africa continue to export raw materials while others capture the value?

Why are less than 1% of sequenced genomes from people living on the African continent?

Can Africa build globally competitive biotech companies?

What would happen if we moved from consuming knowledge to producing and owning it?

And perhaps most importantly: are we allowing the limitations of our environment to determine the size of our ambition?

Yaw makes the case that Africa's future prosperity will depend not simply on what we possess, but on our ability to create knowledge, protect intellectual property, build globally competitive businesses and create the high-value jobs that allow African talent to flourish on the continent.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Ghanaian scientists contributed to sequencing COVID-19 • Why African genomic data matters to global medicine • The story behind Yemaachi Biotech • Why Africa must stop exporting its "raw" intellectual assets • The relationship between research, intellectual property and economic prosperity • Why African scientists need industry, not only academic funding • What it really takes to build biotech businesses from Africa • Why Africa's young talent needs high-value jobs, not simply more training • How education and enterprise must work together • Why African ambition needs to become bigger • The role of excellence, exposure, mentorship and perseverance • Why Africa must move from knowledge consumption to knowledge production

This is a conversation about biotech.

But it is also a conversation about something much bigger: what becomes possible when Africans stop asking what can be achieved within today's limitations and start building what could exist tomorrow.

Subscribe to The Bold New Normal Podcast for more conversations with the thinkers, builders and leaders shaping a prosperous new Africa.