The Rwanda Clinical Trial Capacity Strengthening Team has visited Addis Ababa University. The team included members from the University of Rwanda, Rwanda Biomedical Center, and Rwanda FDA. The purpose of the visit was to learn how The Centre for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa (CDT-Africa) set up a clinical trial training program. The visit was facilitated by Professor Eleni Aklillu from Karolinska Institutet and Professor Eyasu Makonnen from CDT Africa.
The Rwandan team toured the CDT-Africa Hub, which includes a Phase 1 clinical trial, labs for natural products, microbiology, molecular biology, synthesis, analytics, bioinformatics, immunology, cell culture, and an incubation lab. The visit provided an opportunity to benchmark CDT Africa's clinical trials training program and infrastructure, supporting short courses, MSc, and PhD programs. Discussions focused on how Rwanda can develop its own clinical trial capacity.
Collaboration for clinical trial capacity
Rwanda's development effort will be in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet and CDT Africa, powered by Sanofi's Global Health Unit and funding from the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). The team worked on two modules for Rwanda-clinical trials training program: Fundamentals of Clinical Trials and Essentials of Clinical Trials: Bioethics, Regulatory Compliance and Best Practices to be delivered to the first cohort of 20 trainees.
The visit took place in June 2024.
