(Updates with a video comment)
NAIROBI (AlertNet) - Africans are calling for their own scientists to develop affordable medicines to tackle the continent's most urgent health problems, including many diseases neglected by the big drug companies.
On Tuesday, the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) invited African scientists for the first time to submit project proposals for funding.
Until now, Africa has been heavily dependent on external scientists and imported drugs, despite having excellent research institutions in Botswana, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Senegal, Egypt and Mauritius.
Over 95 percent of collaborative research undertaken by African scientists is with institutions outside the continent. As a result, their work is often not in tune with Africa's health needs.
In addition, local pharmaceutical manufacturers are unable to develop scientific discoveries into commercial products.
"Because the money is not coming from within Africa, the researchers don't have the leadership and ownership of the research data and they donÂ?t have mechanisms to manage that collaboration," Dr Solomon Nwaka, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) leader on drug discovery and innovation research told AlertNet.
The WHO is supporting the initiative which is being hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Ethiopia.
Only 10 percent of global expenditure on health research and development is devoted to the health problems that affect 90 percent of the world's population.
ANDI aims to reverse this trend so that more African scientists can work together on their own projects. This will include research into the potential of traditional African medicines and neglected tropical diseases, like sleeping sickness.
"These diseases should not disable anybody. They should not kill anybody," Nwaka said.
"But unfortunately, in Africa, people are still dying of these diseases which can be controlled. The people who are most afflicted by these diseases have to take leadership."
Kenya's minister for public health and sanitation, Beth Mugo, told AlertNet that Kenya would like to start manufacturing more of its own medicines, particularly antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to manage HIV/Aids of which it has a shortage.
In Kenya, only about half of the 800,000 people who need ARVs are getting them.
"Until Africa can produce our medicines ... we will not beat the war of disease," she said at the ANDI stakeholders meeting in Nairobi which ends on Oct 13.
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