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Including African data in drug discovery and development

The low number of clinical trials in Africa and biomedical datasets that disproportionately represent populations of European ancestry contribute to the suboptimal efficacy and safety of some medicines in African populations. To address these disparities, we propose greater incorporation of African data into drug discovery and development, as well as the development of African-centric preclinical and clinical models and tools.
  1. Clinton G. L. Veale

    1. Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.

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  2. Adrienne L. Edkins

    1. The Biomedical Biotechnology Research Unit (BioBRU), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.

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  3. Susan Winks

    1. Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.

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  4. Mathew Njoroge

    1. Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.

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  5. Kelly Chibale

    1. Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa; Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa; South African Medical Research Council Drug Discovery and Development Research Unit and Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 22, 521-522 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-023-00088-8

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Colin Pillai and David Mukanga (CTC), Nicola Mulder (H3Africa), Bernhards Ogutu (PANTHER), Collet Dandara and Collen Masimirembwa (African Pharmacogenomics Consortium), who provided valuable feedback during the preparation of this article. K.C. is the Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery and Development and thanks Neville Isdell for generously funding the Chair.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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