AESA PROGRAMMES
Clinical Trials Community
Promoting Clinical Trials in Africa through Harmonized Stakeholder Engagement
The Clinical Trials Community is a programme of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), an initiative of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) supported by global partners. The CTC’s goal is to increase the level of Clinical Trial investments in Africa by increasing the visibility of the African clinical trialists and sites and making transparent and accessible individual country regulatory and ethics procedures to inform decision making by sponsors.Other key objectives of the programme include:
- Increase visibility of African Clinical Trialists and Sites by indicating geographical location and corresponding disease burden
- Reduce unnecessary duplication of efforts by providing access to current site feasibility data
- Improving predictability by providing access to regulatory and ethics requirements across countries and an online platform for sponsor engagement
- Reducing bias in funding across countries and disease areas by highlighting gaps and promoting synergy across strategic funders
Meeting User Needs
Key platform features were informed by stakeholder engagement meetings held across the continent. Key stakeholders include;
- African clinical trial scientists and researchers,
- Biopharmaceutical sponsors,
- Product development partners (PDPs)
- African Regulatory and Ethics representatives
- Clinical Research Organizations
- Community participants
Key Activities
Stakeholder Engagement, Needs Assessment and User requirements gathering
The Academy hosted seven consultative workshops for scientists, international clinical researchers, biopharma representatives, product development partners (PDPs), and African regulatory representatives across the continent to gather the user requirements. Stakeholder engagement has also been key to get buy-in and to establish the structure and format of this collaborative platform.
The meetings were conducted across the continent as shown in the below:
Meet the Team
Key lessons from conversations with stakeholders
Connect all CTC Stakeholders
Provide access to site feasibility
Map disease burden to sites
Promote sustainability of sites
Visibility, Capacity & Capabilities
Promote practical training
Efficiency of ethical review boards
Link the tool to similar platforms
Inclusion of information on NCDs