The EU-Africa PerMed project is proud to announce that one of our African partners, the South African Medical Research Council SAMRC (https://www.samrc.ac.za/), has joined the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (ICPerMed). SMRC becomes the first African organizations joining this International Consortium, which is one the main objectives of the EU-Africa PerMed project.
The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) was established in 1969 with a mandate to improve the health of the country’s population, through research, development and technology transfer, so that people can enjoy a better quality of life. The scope of the organisation’s research projects includes tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular and non-communicable diseases, gender and health, and alcohol and other drug abuse. With a strategic objective to help strengthen the health systems of the country – in line with that of the Department of Health, the SAMRC constantly identifies the main causes of death in South Africa. The SAMRC manages The South African Precision Medicine Program, that aims to use genomic research in order to contribute to a more proactive and preventive approach to health. The objective is for South Africa to create an ecosystem that enables a better health outcome for every patient. The program is based on creating precision solutions across the innovation value chain. ICPerMed’s contact person at SAMRC is Rizwana Mia, Program manager in charge of Precision Medicine.
The International Consortium for Personalised Medicine ICPerMed was formally established in 2016, with the support of the European Commission. It brings together over 30 European and international partners representing ministries, funding agencies and the European Commission (EC). Together, they work on coordinating and fostering research to develop and evaluate personalised medicine approaches. ICPerMed seeks to contribute to the reasonable and fair implementation of personalised medicine approaches into the health systems for the benefit of patients, citizens and society as a whole. More information about ICPerMed: https://www.icpermed.eu
