Drug development in Africa

Drug research and development face challenges and are under pressure to develop and produce medicine as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Much can be learned from product development partnerships and drug development contributions in Africa.

In this video, Tanja Hammel introduces Professor Christian Burri and Dr Eric Nébié. Both are experts in the field of drug and vaccine development.

Professor Christian Burri is Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine and the Head of the Medicines Implementation Research Unit at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), and Professor for Pharmacy & Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Basel. He has been involved in the development and implementation of drugs and vaccines against neglected tropical and poverty-related diseases, mainly in low-income countries, for over thirty years.

Dr Eric Nébié is a medical doctor from Burkina Faso specialised in tropical medicine and clinical research. He is currently a PhD candidate in Epidemiology and Public Health at the Medicines Implementation Research Unit at the Swiss TPH. He is also a research assistant at the National Institute of Public Health / Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna in Burkina Faso. Eric has a post-graduate diploma in Research and Development of Products to meet public health needs and he is an alumnus of the Advanced Vaccinology Course (ADVAC). He has been involved in drugs and vaccines development in sub-Saharan Africa for ten years.

In the week ahead, we will explore drug development in Africa from different perspectives.

Do the examples of the HIV and the COVID-19 pandemics or the “Medicines for Malaria Venture” mentioned in this video remind you of similar cases? If so, share them in the comment section with your peers.