‘People Didn’t Believe Africa Could Be a Source of Innovation’: How the Continent Holds the Key to Future Drug Research

Africa has the greatest variety in human genes anywhere on the planet but the world is failing to capitalise on it, according one of the continent’s leading scientists, Prof Kelly Chibale, a man determined to change that…About 18% of the global population lives in Africa – a proportion set to rise over the next few decades – and it accounts for 20% of the global disease burden. But only 3% of clinical trials take place on the continent, and most of those in just two countries – South Africa and Egypt…Testing a drug in people with a wider variety of genes, rather than the historic standard of a Caucasian man, means the frequency and amount of a drug given to patients can be better calibrated for everyone before it gets to market. Some global regulators now require genetic diversity in trials before they will approve medicines…The 2023 recipient of the Royal Society’s Africa prize, Chibale…leads the H3D research centre at the University of Cape Town, a unit he founded in 2011, which is working on drugs to fight diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, and combat antimicrobial resistance – conditions that predominantly affect people in Africa. (The Guardian)