Transcript Morris - Andrew Farlow

Bridging the Gap in Global Health
Innovation - from Needs to Access
The South African Malaria
Initiative
A Case Study
E Jane Morris
http://www.acgt.co.za/sami
Scale of the malaria problem
• 107 endemic countries with 3.2 billion people
at risk (40% of world’s population)
• At least 1 million people die in Africa each
year from malaria
• Over 200 million clinical malaria cases in
Africa each year
• Over 4 million people in SA live in malaria
areas (10% of the population)
• Almost 80 million cases each year in the
Southern Africa malaria control area
• Climate change will increase population at
risk in Southern Africa fourfold by 2020
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Global distribution of malaria risk
Source: World Malaria Report 2005
3
Current situation
Research
Development
Disease, patients, clinical
trial sites, market
Production
Testing
4
Building for the future:
Research
Development
Disease, patients, clinical
trial sites, market
Production
Testing
5
The South African Malaria Initiative
• A network of researchers from 16
institutions in South Africa
• Seed funding provided by SA
Department of Science and Technology
• Focusing on development of drugs,
diagnostics, and molecular
epidemiology
• Supported by core expertise groups
• Capacity building and training a key
component
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The discovery pipeline in SAMI
Capacity building
IP
Networking
Products
Biomarkers
Supporting Core Expertise
Functional
Structural
Medicinal
Genomics
Informatics Chemistry
Genetic
manipulation
of parasites
Functional Anti-malarial
Expression
assays
of malaria
proteins
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From Knowledge to Innovation
in SAMI
Discovery
Being
developed in
SAMI
Lab testing/
validation
Establishment
of HTS
platform under
consideration
ADMETox,
Early stage
trials
Pre-clinical
platform
under
discussion
Clinical
development,
regulatory
approval
Clinical trials
possible, lack
regulatory
capacity
Production
& marketing
Capacity for
production of
generics.
Facility for
diagnostics
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being
established
From Knowledge to Innovation
in SAMI
Discovery
Lab testing/
validation
Early stage
trials
Clinical
development,
regulatory
approval
Production
& marketing
Need for international collaboration
Need for funding
Need for business partnerships
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Early successes
• Drug delivery system able to reverse
chloroquine resistance
• Provisional patent covering anti-malarial
activity of a drug registered for other
uses
• Novel RDT ready for field screening by
mid-2008
• Novel in vitro HTS assay validated
• Drug target accepted for in silico virtual
screening (WISDOM)
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Our strengths
• Excellent base of cutting edge research and
facilities to draw on
• Networked approach makes best use of
available equipment, facilities and expertise
• Investing in people and activities not bricks
and mortar
• Unique holdings of live mosquito cultures
• Access to field sites and collaborations in
many African countries.
An African focus on an African
problem!
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