Brazzaville, 8 November 2013 – A consultative meeting of Health research experts from the WHO African Region has selected four pilot projects that can be financed innovatively to accelerate the development of medi-cines and necessary health technologies in the Region. 

This activity was in response to a resolution at the 66th session of the World Health Assembly in May 2013. This resolution urged WHO to facilitate regional consultations and broad engagement of stakeholders the identification and implementation of a few health research and development demonstration projects. These projects should address diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries, particularly the poor, for which immediate action can be taken.

Four demonstration project proposals were selected, and they address developing a simpler treatment schedule for malaria, an easier method of administering HIV medicines to children, a global programme to address visceral Leishmaniasis also known as “black sickness’, and creation of a platform for the coordination of demonstration projects in Africa.
 
Criteria used to select the projects included their relevance to Africa’s priority health needs, their technical feasibility, the possibility of their being realized within a relatively short period (about five years), the innovative  financing and coordination mechanisms to be undertaken, and the  delinking of the cost of research and development and the price at which the product will eventually be marketed

The projects were selected from 17 proposals at a meeting held from 30 to 31 October in Brazzaville and attended by more than 30 participants including delegates from Member States, representatives of the African Advisory Committee for Research and Development, and technical experts from the African Region.

The four projects  along with others from the other five WHO Regions will be presented to a global technical con-sultative meeting of experts to be held from 3 to 5 December 2013 in Geneva, for the selection of the final list.

Closing the meeting, the Deputy Regional Director, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, congratulated participants for their concrete output in identifying the  four pilot projects following a vigorous review process. She also pledged WHO’s commitment to ensuring appropriate networking and adequate representation at the Committee of World Experts that will meet in December to evaluate the projects.
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