The 1st EU-Africa PerMed Stakeholder Workshop took place, as an online event, on the 9th-10th of February 2022, hosted by the NACOSTI, the Kenya National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation.
The event brought together around 150 stakeholders from 41 different countries. During the first day, the participants learned about the project, the ICPerMed consortium and the vision from the European Commission about EU-Africa collaboration in PM. Presentations from different African speakers provided an overview of Personalised Medicine in Africa and across the different regions and participants were able to discuss with them about the challenges and opportunities for its implementation in Africa.
The second day of the workshops was focused on identifying and prioritising personalised medicine needs in Africa, with a key note presentation on the Personalised medicine Programme of South Africa and five small groups discussions focused on 5 relevant issues: i) Scientific and Technological Needs; ii) Scientific and Technological Application Fields; iii) Operational Needs for Better Integrating PM into Healthcare and Clinical Practice; iv) Governance/Regulatory/Ethics Needs to Make PM a Reality and v) What is/are the Need/s to Improve Healthcare.
The last part of the second day dealt with the potential and advantages of collaboration In the field of Personalized Medicine between Africa And Europe.
The complete agenda of the event can be found in the following PDF.
The report of the workshop is available as a project deliverable:
- D2.3. Report:The EU-Africa PerMed stakeholder workshop report.
WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS
| Wiew | Title |
|---|---|
| Day 1 – 9th February 2022 | |
 | Brief introduction to the EU-Africa PerMed project and the objectives of the workshop / Joaquín Guinea & Erika Sela, Innovatec (SPAIN). |
| Benefits of EU-AU collaboration in Personalised Medicine: the vision from the European Commission / Jean-Luc Sanne, Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission. |
| A vision of Personalised Medicine in Africa / Prof. Michèle Ramsay, Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of the Witwatersrand (SOUTH AFRICA). |
| Presentation of the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine / Monika Frenzel, Agence Nationale de la Recherche – ANR – (FRANCE). |
| The vision from WHO – Dr. Joseph Okeibunor, World Health Organization / Regional Office for Africa. |
| The vision from the African Union – Mr. Paul Tanui, African Union Development Agency – NEPAD. |
| North African – Dr. Yosr Hamdi, Institute Pasteur, (TUNISIA). |
| Southern Africa – Prof. Collet Dandara, Africa Pharmacogenomics Network, (SOUTH AFRICA). |
| West Africa – Dr. Badara Cisse, Institut de Recherche en Santé, de Surveillance Epidémiologique et de Formation (SENEGAL). |
| Day 2 – 10th February 2022 | |
| Presentations of the results of the pre-workshop survey on Personalised Medicine health needs and priorities in Africa / Lynette Kamau, African Population and Health Research Center (KENYA). |
| Example from the view of an African country – South Africa / Rizwana Mia, South African Medical Research Council, (SOUTH AFRICA). |
| How to create collaboration (Africa/Europe) / Prof. Moses Bockarie, Director of International Cooperation (Africa) and Head of Africa Office, European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. |
| Personalised Medicine research, infrastructures/platforms / Prof. Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis and I3M Thematic Institute. |
| Education – Capacity building / Prof. Abdoulaye Djimdé, Pathogens Genomic Diversity Network Africa. |
| Harmonisation of standards – Clinical studies in Personalised Medicine / Dr. Paula Garcia, European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, and Project Officer, CSA PERMIT project. |
| Lessons learnt on COVID-19/ Infectious diseases and Potential of Personalized Medicine / Prof. Salim Abdool Karim, Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. |
| Genomics Surveillance on the COVID-19 pandemic response in South Africa / Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, Director of The KwaZulu Natal Research and Sequencing Platform, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. |
| Wrap up + Outlook for future stakeholder involvement / Monika Frenzel, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (FRANCE) ; Rizwana Mia, South African Medical Research Council (SOUTH AFRICA) ; Erika Sela, Innovatec (SPAIN). |