The European Commission has promised EUR 40 million in funding to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). The amount signifies half of the EUR 80 million that the EDCTP has approved for research into the prevention of poverty-related diseases in Africa.

The EDCTP is a partnership of 14 European Member States plus Norway, Switzerland and sub-Saharan countries. Its aim is to reduce the global burden of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria by pooling resources for conducting clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa. This will be achieved through combining research to speed up the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and microbicides against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, through trials in sub-Saharan Africa.

The trials initiated by the EDCTP involving TB and malaria will also be combined with capacity building and networking activities. These will ensure the long term sustainability of clinical trials in the region. A number of projects will focus on creating and developing capacity for ethics reviews of clinical trials and on enhancing the regulatory framework needed for approval of medicines in Africa. This enables African countries to conduct high-quality and ethically sound clinical trials, and to assess the safety and efficacy of all medicines that enter the African market.

'This is a very significant milestone for collaboration between north and south in the fight against the three main diseases of poverty, namely HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,' added Professor Charles Mgone, EDCTP's Executive Director. 'It is also very gratifying to note that among the 26 projects approved for funding, 22 have African scientists based in Africa as their principal investigators. This underscores EDCTP's objective of fostering a genuine partnership and enhancing clinical research capacity in Africa.'

Diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS are major threats to developing countries, and especially to the countries of Africa. 2002 figures show that seven out of ten children diagnosed as living with HIV and AIDS were living in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 1999 an estimated 860,000 African children lost their teachers to AIDS.

The EDCTP is established within the framework of the Sixth Framwork Programme, the principle instrument of thet European Union for financing investigation. The Sixth Framework Programme had as its goal to turn the European Union into a dynamic and competetive economy based on knowledge. When the programme terminates in 2010, EDCTP will form part of the Seventh Framework Programme.