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The CSIR’s nanomedicine research programme, sponsored by
the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has been awarded Centre
of Excellence in health innovation status by the African Network for
Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI). Based at the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, ANDI
promotes and sustains African-led product research and development
innovation through the discovery, development and delivery of
affordable new tools.
The field of nanomedicine has a great number of
applications. A cross-cutting theme is that it works at a molecular or
atomic scale. The CSIR’s nanomedicine research programme pertains
specifically to the repackaging of already existing medicines for
poverty-related diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), using
nanotechnology, in order to enhance its efficacy.
“Unveiling the ANDI Centres of Excellence marks an
important step to providing affordable medicines for all Africans,”
says Mrs Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s Minister of Science and
Technology and the co-chair of the ANDI Board. She also stressed the
need to devise African solutions in Africa and generate jobs, skills
and enterprises through research and development on the continent in
collaboration with global partners.
According to Dr Liesbeth Botha, Executive Director for
the Materials Science and Manufacturing research unit at the CSIR,
where the Centre of Excellence resides, this new status has already
created several opportunities that can assist with the centre’s goal of
researching and developing solutions to poverty-related diseases
through nanomedicine.
“These opportunities include, among others, greater
access to funding sources and a heightened interest from researchers in
the field seeking employment at the centre,” she explains. “We are now
also being approached by more institutions, both national and
international, that wants to collaborate with us.”
Dr Hulda Shaidi Swai, who heads up the DST/CSIR
Nanomedicine Research Centre of Excellence, elaborates on what the ANDI
status means to the centre: “We can now revisit some of the medicines
that have been developed in Africa but shelved because of clinical
failure and reformulate them through nanotechnology. This way, we can
assist with the commercialisation of more African products. We will
also be assisting with the development of human capacity building
through exchange programmes, nanomedicine masters’ classes, sabbaticals
and other initiatives to alleviate the critical skills shortage on our
continent.”
The DST/CSIR Nanomedicine Research Centre of Excellence
is the only one of its kind in the world. This centre concentrates its
efforts on finding solutions specifically for poverty-related diseases
such as TB, malaria and HIV/Aids through the revolutionary field of
nanomedicine.
Swai explains that poverty-related diseases have been
and still are a neglected area of research by the world’s primary
pharmaceutical companies and researchers in the developed world. Where
nanomedicine has effectively been applied to develop products for
money-spinning diseases such as cancer, it is left to African
researchers and those in other developing areas of the world to
concentrate on poverty-related diseases.
“Being awarded the status of an ANDI Centre of
Excellence means that we are being recognised internationally by the
United Nations, through the World Health Organisationz, as a
pan-African research centre that can truly make a difference. The
status gives us credibility. We have, for instance, already been
invited to be involved in developing nanomedicine as a subject for the
curriculum of the Pan-African Universities, and to write concept notes
of our activities to the World Bank,” she says.
ANDI made the announcement of their 32 Centres of
Excellence in health innovation at its annual stakeholders meeting in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting, held on 24 to 27 October this year,
was attended by over 400 participants including scientists, policy
makers and donors, governmental and non-governmental organisations from
Africa and beyond.
According to UNECA, there are serious fears that Africa
may not meet some of the health-related targets of the millennium
development goals and ANDI, by assisting to coordinate Africa’s most
promising health-specific research activities, is seen as a key
mechanism for achieving these.
Story: CSIR eNews, December 2011
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Dr
Hulda Shaidi Swai, head of the DST/CSIR Nanomedicine
Research Centre of Excellence, receives a token of recognition from
Tanzania's
Ambassador in Ethiopia, Dr Joram Biswaro
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