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.

SEARCH

SEARCH (SouthErn Africa Regulatory for Clinical researcH) is a consortium of Southern African countries (Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana) and European Union, aimed to increase the capacity of the National Regulatory Authorities to oversight clinical trials for new, safer and more effective medicines to treat the diseases affecting the Southern African region. The consortium is coordinated by TESA, the Network of Excellence in clinical research for Southern African region, lead by Dr. Eusebio Macete.

INTEGRATION+

INTEGRATION+ is an implementation research focused on malaria in pregnancy, with the potential to change national health prevention policies to protect an additional 13 million pregnant women each year from malaria. A consortium of universities and research institutions from 6 African countries and 2 European countries applied to fund this project to European Commission (EDCTP) and USA (PMI).

AfriEthique

A European-African partnership aimed at improving the ethics and regulatory capacity of clinical research in Central African countries has successfully proposed its project (AfriHetique) to the European Commission (EDCTP). The partnership is coordinated by CANTAM, the Network of Excellence in clinical research for Central African region, lead by Prof. Francine Ntoumi.

Liberia

With comments as “the project is likely to have a significant impact”, and “this project will make a substantial contribution to the expected impact”, the reviewers of the European Union agency EDCTP approved for funding another new project: “LiberHetica: increasing the ethics capacity of oversight for clinical trials in Liberia by establishing European-African collaborations that facilitates implementation of efficient processes …”. A great team lead by Liberian institutional rapresentatives made this come true, therefore I would like to thank Dr. Bolay Fotorma, Jemee Tegli, Dr. Stephen B. Kennedy, Gloria Mason, and Cecilia Morris.