EU coordinating €600 million for vaccine clinical trials

The EU is leading a programme to accumulate €600 million for clinical trials in Africa that will conduct research and development on possible vaccines for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The programme, known as the Europe-Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), intends to link national clinical research programmes from across Europe with scientists working in developing countries, mostly in Africa, to develop new drugs. "In the past, there have been many projects, but the feeling is that there was not enough coordination between all the research, and we are hoping to bridge this gap with the EDCTP," Philipe Busquin, the European research commissioner, said in Dar es Salaam on Friday. He was on the first leg of a three-country tour to raise the profile of the programme and encourage African countries to back the initiative. He also visited Mozambique and South Africa. The EU said that the EDCTP hoped to pool the resources of EU member states, plus Norway, into one research programme, resulting in the largest clinical trials programme ever to have targeted Africa. The EU said the money would be used purely for research. "From the point of view of research, we are trying identify new interventions that are suitable for the African context," Dr Octavi Quintana, director of the Health Research Programme at the European Union, also travelling with the EU Commissioner, said on Friday. As as result, Quintana said African scientists and health system representatives had taken part in the programme “at its very early stages”, enabling them to assume a leading role in its further development. Of the proposed €600 million, the European Commission has set aside €200 million from community funds, and a further €200 million will be drawn from the national clinical research projects of countries participating in the programme. Donors and public-private partnerships will provide the remaining €200 million. The EDCTP was launched in April 2002 but the initial activities, which will involve capacity building in undisclosed locations across Africa, are due to begin in October 2003.