Rwanda to receive boost in health research

KIGALI - THE European and Developing countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) has promised to boost Rwanda’s health research by accelerating the development of new or improved tools against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB). This was disclosed by EDCTP representative and former Prime Minister of Mozambique, Dr. Pascoal Mocumbi, while addressing members of the press on Friday at Hotel des Mille Collines, Kigali. “Currently, EDCTP is funding several research projects in Rwanda such as Project Ubuzima and TRAC Plus as well as the Rwanda National Ethics Committee and CHUK ethics committee members,” he said. He added that EDCTP empowers sub-Saharan African countries to alleviate the burden of HIV/AIDS scourge by accelerating the development of drugs, vaccines and micro bides. “We urgently need to revaluate existing interventions and accelerate the discovery and development of new and improved interventions,” he noted. “In its joint programme of action, EDCTP has targeted to fund clinical trials for HIV/AIDS drugs, vaccines and micro bides while actively developing human capacity and infrastructure for clinical research in sub-Saharan Africa”. Mocumbi hailed Rwanda for having positively responded to EDCTP’s call of by building capacity in heath research in order to address health challenges. According to Dr. Justin Wane, the Chairperson of Rwanda National Ethics Committee, EDCTP has strengthened their capacity in conducting clinical trials. “We received a grant from EDCTP to build capacity in health research; we are trying to set up a research centre that will carry out micro bides” he said. According to Evelyne Kestelyn, the Director of Project ‘Ubuzima”,, EDCTP supports multi-centre projects which combine clinical trials, capacity building and networking. ‘The aim of integrating these activities is to ensure that the developed capacity is utilised to successfully conduct the clinical trials in a sustainable way,” she explained. EDCTP was created in 2003 with a mission to alleviate poverty by accelerating the development of new or improved tools and to generally improve health research in developing countries. Ends