The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) 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 Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) 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 Ms 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 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 ANDI Centre of Excellence means that we are being recognised internationally by the United Nations, through the World Health Organisation, 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.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About the DST/CSIR Nanomedicine Research Centre of Excellence

Like Information Technology, Nanomedicine is very important for Africa's globally competitiveness. Failing to advance its use would be to Africa¿s peril. 
The DST/CSIR Nanomedicine Research Centre of Excellence seeks to deliver alternative therapies against poverty-related diseases through the sharing of resources, technologies and know-how, which will avoid wasteful duplication of efforts and allow the most efficient use of pre-existing structures. The centre offers researchers a stimulating and dynamic research environment by providing guidance and support and collaborates on joint activities to enable valuable delivery.

The approach is geared at advancing the nanomedicine products, not the individual organisations (because Africans needs lots of nanomedicines, not organisations).

Supported by the DST and housed at the CSIR, this is the only research centre of its kind in the world. Its dedicated researchers concentrate their efforts on finding solutions specifically for poverty-related diseases such as TB, malaria and HIV/Aids through the revolutionary field of nanomedicine.

First focussing on TB, the Centre is currently developing a nanotechnology-based targeted drug delivery system that will improve the current inadequate therapeutic management of TB. They envisage that their system will target infected cells and enable easier entry, with slow release and retention of the antibiotics in the cells for longer, hence reducing the current dose frequency from daily to once-a-week intake of antibiotics, and lessen the total standard treatment time from six to two months.

About ANDI

The African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) was launched in Abuja in 2008. Its goal is to promote and sustain African-led product R&D innovation through the discovery, development and delivery of affordable new tools, including those based on traditional medicines. ANDI will also support capacity and infrastructural development. 
A task force was established to develop the strategic and business plan for ANDI through a broad consultative process. This plan is seen as an important contribution towards the implementation of the global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property (GSPA) approved through World Health Assembly Resolution 61.21.1,2,3 ANDI is based at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its goals are:

• to increase research and development collaboration among African institutions and countries, including through the management of Centres of Excellence in health innovation;
• fund and manage a portfolio of health R&D projects;
• support and promote public-private partnerships and new firms within Africa to support the development and manufacture of new drugs, diagnostics and other health products;
• manage and explore innovative mechanisms to encourage and reward local innovation while promoting access, including research drawing on traditional medicine and intellectual property management;
• leverage existing capacity to support south-south and north-south collaboration; and
• promote long-term economic sustainability through supporting R&D and access to health products in Africa.

The European Union provided the seed funding that has contributed to the establishment of ANDI.

About the ANDI Centres of Excellence in health innovation

The ANDI Centres of Excellence are virtual or physical centres of sustained distinction in research in key areas of national and global knowledge that simultaneously generate highly qualified human resource capacity. They concentrate and build on existing capacity and resources to enable researchers to collaborate across disciplines on long-term projects that are locally relevant and internationally competitive. 

These centres form the basis of an integrated network of competency. They are institutions with promising technology platforms that can support local training, technology transfer and diffusion in Africa. The centres form the backbone for concentrated and coordinated collaboration, support pan-African institutional technology transfer and diffusion as well as broader South-South collaboration.

The ANDI Centres of Excellence are spread across the five sub-regions of Africa and are conducting research and development (R&D) as well as innovation activities on drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, medical devices and traditional medicines. They will implement ANDI projects and capacity building on the continent. 10 of the 32 ANDI Centres of Excellence are situated in South Africa.

To become an ANDI Centre of Excellence an institution must fulfil the following criteria:

• Be based in Africa
• Be a public, private or non-governmental research and/or development institution or university
• Have a track record of achievement in a specific or multiple areas of the product value chain as measured by international peer reviewed publications, patents, technologies developed, products discovered, developed, manufactured or commercialised, evidence of previous or ongoing activities and a reasonable level of funding
• Have staff with a track record in the specific area(s) of competency within the product value chain R&D
• Have a willingness to partner with ANDI
• Have a willingness to partner with other institutions in Africa on specific projects, training and capacity building activities
• Have functional research infrastructure
• Have a track record of achievements in a disease(s) that disproportionately affect Africa
• Have a willingness to engage in South-South and North-South collaborations as well as technology transfer activities
• Have a demonstrated track record in intra-African and international collaboration
• The sustainability of the institution must be evident through budget allocation over the past three years.