Skip to main content

Africa gets 'holistic' drug discovery centre

By


Munyaradzi Makoni
14 April 2011
http://www.scidev.net/en/sub-suharan-africa/africa-gets-holistic-drug-discovery-centre.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_subsuharanafrica

[CAPE TOWN] A "holistic" research centre described as the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa to bridge the gap between basic sciences and drug development was launched in South Africa last week (7 April).

The Drug Discovery and Development Centre, known by the acronym H-3D, will focus on developing and testing preclinical drug candidates for diseases afflicting the continent, and will train African scientists in skills needed for drug discovery, integrating medicinal chemistry, biology and pharmacology.

It will allow "Africans to find their own solutions to their own health problems," said Kelly Chibale, founding director and a chemist at University of Cape Town (UCT), which will host the centre.

The aim is to achieve a "critical mass of personnel" to help make Africa competitive enough to attract contracts from the pharmaceutical industry and research organisations, and create jobs in Africa, Chibale said.

"South Africa has a strong reputation in developing basic sciences and clinical studies, so researchers will bridge the gap that has always existed in translating knowledge into new medicines," Chibale told SciDev.Net. But he added that even South Africa, the most technologically advanced economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, has gaps in knowledge and expertise of the drug discovery chain ­ something the centre will try to fill.

Research will focus on drugs for the treatment of malaria, tuberculosis and cardio-vascular diseases.

Mamphela Ramphele, chairperson of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), South Africa, said researchers should seize this opportunity to also tackle diseases such as typhoid, cholera and river blindness, which are largely confined to Africa.

But it will be a long time before drugs could start rolling out, Chibale cautioned: "I don't want to create any unrealistic expectations. We will kiss many frogs before meeting the prince."

Timothy Wells, chief scientific officer at the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) told SciDev.Net the centre is an opportunity to provide original home-grown drugs for diseases that developed countries hardly pay attention to.

Apart from the MMV, the centre is collaborating with the US National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline.

The MMV and the TIA will co-fund H-3D to the tune of 20 million rand (around US$3 million) for the next four years. The MMV will also sponsor mentoring programmes for South African researchers.

--

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating an Africa-wide People's Health Movement

By
Our manifesto As the IPHU participants from the 'Africa Group’ we have agreed that in order to strengthen the movement, we would each need to first start by working locally, strengthening the PHM activities in our respective countries, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. We commit to support each other in developing and strengthening the PHM in each of our countries as we work towards an Africa-wide People’s Health Movement. The role of PHM is to bring together organisations and individuals already working for the Right to Health under the banner of this shared vision of “Health for all, now!” PHM Africa is an organisation, not a movement. Anyone who endorses the charter and is working in the struggle for the right to health for all can join PHM Africa. The objectives and activities of our campaign are defined and developed by our members. We will strive to further the movement starting on this blog by connecting with others, sharing experiences,...
Post a Comment
Read more

PHM-SA Right to health training, Philipi.

By
Background The training was organised as part of the Right to Health Campaign being led by the People’s Health Movement (PHM) in South Africa . The Campaign was launched in September 2007 and has three components – Capacity building, media and testimonies. The training is conceived as part of capacity building and raising awareness in communities about the right to health and what that entails. It complements the other components of the campaign, by, for example, empowering the participants to go out and train others, and allow community groups to participate in a process of gathering of stories related to the right to health. The training held at Bonne Esperance was the first of the PHM’s workshops in the campaign so was a learning experience for all. In all, there were 22 participants from 4 organisations (Mamelani, Stukkende Plaas action group, Proudly Manenberg and Bonne Esperance), as well as 7 facilitators from PHM. Programme The programme ran from 9am to 3.30pm . ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presidential Summit on Universal Health in Nigeria: Excerpts

By
Shared by PHM Nigeria: --- Forwarded message ---------- From: gbenga adedayo < omindav@yahoo.com > Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 12:30 PM Subject: Presidential Summit on Universal Health in Nigeria: Excerpts Dear All, This is just to share citation from the one-day presidential summit that held in Abuja on Monday (10th March). Objective of Summit according to the minister of Health: Minister of Health, Professor Oyebuchi Chukwu, said the aim of the summit, among other objectives, was to unlock the opportunities for universally accessible, effective, efficient and equitable healthcare in Nigeria. He stated that the summit was meant to demonstrate government's commitment to achieving universal health coverage in Nigeria. According to him, ensuring health for majority of people would require both availability and accessibility to health infrastructure and services. “The summit is not stopping all current efforts to achieving universal health cov...
Post a Comment
Read more