African-European Symposium: Challenges in Research Ethics Assessment, 13:00 – 18:00 CET, May 25th, 2021.

The symposium,  organised by The Embassy of Good Science, in collaboration with EURECBERC-LusoAfriEthique, and LiberHetica, aims to facilitate the sharing of experiences and perspectives on research ethics assessment challenges between African and European experts. The symposium is organized into four sessions in which experts will present on challenges and solutions related to the theme of their session. A panel discussion will follow the speaker presentations https://bit.ly/3tqlS9H.

The symposium will be live streamed here (no registration required):

https://zoom.us/j/92564963152?pwd=M3JnYWNYNEU2eVYrR3NrUG5vSWR1QT09

Passcode: sN6yzc

ITAIL-COVID-19 Project second press release

Summarising the latest most important achievements, the project ITAIL-COVID-19 (Integrated Testing Approaches and Intensive Laboratory training as strategy against COVID-19) second press release is now available: click here to download.

The Congolese National Medicines Regulatory Authority (DPM) with WHO to guarantee the development and circulation of safe and effective drugs, by implementing the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT)

As part of the strengthening of health systems and in particular the regulation of drugs and health products within the Africlinique project, the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), and the WHO Country Office (PO) in the Republic of Congo provided technical assistance to support the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicine (DPM) of Congo from February 15 to 19 2021 in Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).

The Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) integrates the Maturity Level (ML) of the various drug regulatory functions in a computerized platform that facilitates its use and the ranking of maturity indicators. This self-assessment has enabled several countries in the sub-region to identify their ML as well as to put in place institutional development plans (IDPs) in order to access a ML which guarantees safety,  quality and effectiveness of drugs in development and in circulation.

Click here to for news release in English.

Second European-African training for the Congolese team on “SARS-CoV-2 detection by ApoH enzyme”

As part of the implementation of ITAIL-COVID-19 project funded by the European Development Countries Partnership for Clinical Trials (EDCTP) and coordinated by the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research (FCRM), the Congolose team of this project participated on January 14, 2021 in the second online practical training on “SARS-CoV-2 detection by the ApoH“. Supervised by the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), this second practical training allowed participants to become familiar with this ultrasensitive virus detection technique. The training on this new technology was carried out by Dr. Carolyn Thibal (ApoH-Technologies) and Professor Francisco Veas, from IRD Montpellier – France. This technique will detect newly infected people with very low viral load, not possible to be detected with conventional methods, including classic RT-PCR. This ApoH detection will be very helpful for monitoring health workers who are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic. The first training was held on September 2020.

 

ImproViTB

With 1 million new cases and 200,000 children dead each year, Tuberculosis (TB) is now the leading cause of death from infectious diseases for children of all ages globally (UNICEF). ImproViTB is among the first pediatric clinical studies in the Central African region aimed at improving the clinical outcome and quality of life of children with pulmonary tuberculosis through a standard antituberculosis treatment supplemented with vitamin D.
This project is lead by a consortium of research institutions and universities from 4 Central African countries (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Gabon) and 3 European countries, coordinated by CANTAM (Prof. Francine Ntoumi), the Network of Excellence in clinical research for Central African region.