How medicines can be tailored to African populations

Join us for the Royal Society Africa Prize Lecture given by 2023 winner Professor Kelly Chibale.
 
Within the context of innovative pharmaceutical research and development (R&D), African populations have historically been neglected from the perspective of inclusion of African data in the discovery and development of new medicines. Coupled with the generally low volume of clinical trials in Africa and absence of African-centric preclinical discovery tools and models, this has contributed to the suboptimal efficacy and safety of some medicines used in African populations. How populations respond to medicines is influenced by, amongst several factors, the genetics of a given population.  Within this context, African populations have greater genetic variation relative to other populations worldwide. At this juncture it is noteworthy that there is a link between the genetics of a population, the socioeconomic and physical environment in which patients live, and treatment of disease. This warrants the development of capacity to discover and develop medicines near patient populations while also developing tools and models to facilitate a stratified medicine approach. 
This lecture will describe efforts to develop medicines discovery capacity in Africa and R&D approaches towards tailoring medicines for African populations.