The first annual consortium meeting of the BREEDIME project was recently held in Zanzibar, attracting around 40 participants. Over the two-day event, attendees discussed project milestones, achievements, challenges, and future plans.
The BREEDIME project, including a consortium of nine institutions from Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Scotland, and Sweden, is coordinated by Professor Eleni Aklillu from the Department of Global Public Health (GPH). Officially launched in August 2023 , the project is a 36-month initiative funded by EDCTP 3.
The project's first annual consortium meeting, held on 18-19 November 2024, brought together collaborators from all participating institutions to review milestones, deliverables, and planned activities. The Zanzibar Food and Drug Agency hosted the event, where each consortium member presented their progress and future plans within their respective work packages.
The guest of honor, Zanzibar's Minister of Health, Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, formally opened the meeting, emphasizing the project's significance and its timely launch in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event attracted attention from local news channels, who sought the minister's opinion on the project. Professor Eleni Aklillu and the project's scientific leader, Dr. Adam Fimbo, were also interviewed.
At the meeting, the Rwanda Food and Drug Authority reported that during the recent Marburg virus outbreak, they effectively utilized the guidelines and standard operating procedures developed within the BREEDIME project. Their swift response to the public health emergency was largely due to the project's contributions.
"The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with recent outbreaks of Monkeypox and the Marburg virus in Africa, underscores the urgent need to strengthen resilience in research ethics, diagnostics and medicine regulatory frameworks to enhance responses to public health emergencies" says Professor Aklillu.
EU finance administrator Sofia Lindeberg, also from GPH, provided an overview of the project's finances and explained the complex EU regulations that consortium members must follow.
The meeting concluded with fruitful discussions and a clear plan for the remaining work.
The project title BREEDIME is an acronym for "Building Resilient Research Ethics, Diagnostics and Medicines regulatory capacity during routine and public health emergency periods".
The main objective of the project is to strengthen regulatory affairs in area of ethical review processes, clinical trials control, assessment, and post marketing evaluation of therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, and critical medical devices.
Consortium members consists of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA), Zanzibar Food and Drug Agency (ZFDA), Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (Rwanda FDA), Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI-GSF KCMC), Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Zanzibar Health and Research Institute (ZAHRI) and St. Andrews University, Scotland (USTAN).
