Building sustainable clinical trial sites in Sub-Saharan Africa through networking, infrastructure improvement, training and conducting clinical studies: The PanACEA approach.

Autor: Mekota AM; Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University Hospital LMU Munich, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: mekota@lrz.uni-muenchen.de., Gillespie SH; University of St. Andrews, Division of Infection and Global Health, School of Medicine, St. Andrews, United Kingdom., Hoelscher M; Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University Hospital LMU Munich, Munich, Germany., Diacon AH; Task Applied Science, Cape Town, South Africa., Dawson R; University of Cape Town Lung Institute, Cape Town, South Africa., Churchyard G; The Aurum Institute for Health Research, Johannesburg, South Africa & School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa., Sanne I; Clinical HIV Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa., Minja L; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland., Kibiki G; Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute, Moshi, Tanzania., Maboko L; NIMR-Mbeya Medical Research Center, Mbeya, Tanzania., Lakhi S; University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia., Joloba M; Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda., Alabi A; Centre de Recherche Médicale de Lambaréné (CERMEL), Lambaréné, Gabon; Institute for Tropical Medicine, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany., Kirenga B; Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya., McHugh TD; Centre for Clinical Microbiology, University College of London, London, UK., Grobusch MP; Centre de Recherche Médicale de Lambaréné (CERMEL), Lambaréné, Gabon; Institute for Tropical Medicine, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany; Center of Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location AMC, Amsterdam Infection & Immunity, Amsterdam Public Health, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Boeree MJ; Department of Lung Diseases, Radboud Institute of Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Acta tropica [Acta Trop] 2023 Feb; Vol. 238, pp. 106776. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 08.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2022.106776
Abstrakt: Introduction: The Pan-African Consortium for the Evaluation of Anti-Tuberculosis Antibiotics (PanACEA) was designed to build tuberculosis (TB) trial capacity whilst conducting clinical trials on novel and existing agents to shorten and simplify TB treatment. PanACEA has now established a dynamic network of 11 sub-Saharan clinical trial sites and four European research institutions.
Objectives: In 2011, a capacity development program, funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), was launched with four objectives, aiming at strengthening collaborating TB research sites to reach the ultimate goal of becoming self-sustainable institutions: networking; training; conducting clinical trials; and infrastructure scaling-up of sites.
Methods: Assessment in six sub-Saharan TB-endemic countries (Gabon, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) were performed through a structured questionnaire, site visits, discussion with the PanACEA consortium, setting of milestones and identification of priorities and followed-up with evaluations of each site. The results of this needs-based assessment was then translated into capacity development measures.
Results: In the initial phase, over a four-year period (March 2011 - June 2014), the programme scaled-up six sites; conducted a monitoring training program for 11 participants; funded five MSc and four PhD students, fostering gender balance; conducted four epidemiological studies; supported sites to conduct five Phase II studies and formed a sustainable platform for TB research (panacea-tb.net).
Conclusion: Our experience of conducting TB clinical trials within the PanACEA programme environment of mentoring, networking and training has provided a sound platform for establishing future sustainable research centres. Our goal of facilitating emergent clinical TB trial sites to better initiate and lead research activities has been mostly successful.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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