Looking back at the WIPO Re:Search Africa Regional Event
December 13, 2021
In October 2021, the WIPO Re:Search consortium celebrated the Africa Regional Event, highlighting collaborations during the past ten years involving African research institutions and scientists. Established in 2011, WIPO Re:Search is a public-private partnership administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in collaboration with BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH). Its mission is to accelerate the discovery and development of technologies for neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis by sharing intellectual property with the global health research community, catalyzing and fostering global health collaborations, and contributing to capacity-building in developing countries.
WIPO Re:Search counts among its members over 40 African research institutions, collectively boasting more than 50 collaborations involving African researchers. Examples of collaborations involving scientists from the continent include screening medicinal plants for onchocerciasis treatment in Cameroon and developing malaria diagnostics in Nigeria. Learn about these assets from our collaborators and more on the WIPO Re:Search resource platform.
About the event
WIPO’s Assistant Director General for Global Challenges and Partnerships, Mr. Edward Kwakwa, opened the event with a compelling statement about the existing innovative capacity on the African continent and set the tone that Africans are not only innovating but are also in the best position, given their scientific and contextual knowledge, to discover the technologies that will defeat NTDs affecting the continent.
According to ADG Kwakwa, “As African countries endeavor to move away from resource-based economies and closer to knowledge based economies, in line with the African Union Agenda 2063, the need to strengthen national innovation ecosystems becomes increasingly important.”
He went on to add that: “Here at WIPO, we see intellectual property rights as a tool for sustainable development that helps address economic, social and environmental challenges…thinking in particular of the inclusion of women, of youth and of marginalized groups”.
Thereafter, Ms. Jennifer Dent, President and CEO of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), in her opening remarks provided an overview of the partnerships created over the last 10 years. She described the successful WIPO Re:Search fellowship program that was developed through the Funds In Trust, sponsored by the Australian government. “Eleven talented African scientists—including three women—from nine organizations across eight countries each received valuable R&D training at WIPO Re:Search Member companies and leading academic organizations in Australia, India, Switzerland and the United States.”
The event featured five panels:
- African Leaders: Investing in Research, Innovation, and Global Collaborations; the Important Role of WIPO Re:Search
- African Innovators: Advancing R&D through WIPO Re:Search Partnerships
- African Researchers: Sharing Knowledge and Building Skills through WIPO Re:Search Capacity Development Programs
- Global Pharmaceutical Companies: Fostering Innovation, Building Capacity, and Mobilizing IP to Address Priority Health Needs in Africa
- International Stakeholders: Driving Health and Economic Development in Africa through Public-Private Partnerships
See the full agenda of the WIPO Re:Search Africa Regional Event.
In the first panel, Prof. Ahmad Bello, Chairman Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, highlighted the importance of global partnerships to achieving ABU’s vision of scientific excellence. “WIPO Re:Search provides our NTD, forensic biotechnology, malaria and tuberculosis researchers with access to resources and know-how that they may not have otherwise been able to obtain, empowering them to drive their R&D programs forward to address some of the most critical health challenges in our country and region. The Consortium also provides valuable training and capacity building opportunities for ABU staff.”
In subsequent panels, some of the most active WIPO ReSearch members from the African continent shared their global partnership success stories. Prof. Lawal Bilbis, Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto in Nigeria, described how WIPO Re:Search enabled him to access a high-quality compound library from Johnson & Johnson to accelerate his antimalarial drug discovery programs. “More than 90% of malaria cases and deaths are in Africa. Rising resistance to current drugs is a significant threat to malaria control. Through WIPO Re:Search, I was able to screen pharmaceutical company compounds to identify molecules that attack malaria parasites in a different way than existing therapies.”
Prof. Fabrice Boyom, Head of the Antimicrobial & Biocontrol Agents Unit at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon spoke about the important role of industry collaborations in his work to accelerate the discovery of new treatments for parasitic diseases. He shared that his research has greatly benefited from compounds shared through partnerships with Johnson & Johnson, Merck KGaA and several others. He went on to describe a major achievement arising from a WIPO Re:Search collaboration in which he is involved, namely, the furthering of antimalarial drug discovery in partnership with Dr. Bill Baker from the University of South Florida (USF). The collaboration focused on the anti-malarial properties of Cameroonian medicinal plants and received funding through a Grand Challenges Africa Innovation grant.
Another longstanding participant in WIPO Re:Search, Prof. Fidelis Cho-Ngwa, Professor of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Drug Discovery at the University of Buea in Cameroon, shared his experience of being one of the first WIPO Re:Search funds in trust fellows, hosted by Novartis in 2013.
“WIPO Re:Search came in to fill an important gap which we had in our research”, he said, referring to the large amounts of compounds that became available via WIPO Re:Search, as well as access to technology and expertise to purify molecules with antiparasitic activity from medicinal plants.
Similarly, Dr. Deus Ishengoma, Principal Research Scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania, also shared his story of how his fellowship contributed to building capacity for molecular surveillance of malaria in his country.
“The fellowship I had enabled me to connect with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has had a great impact on our studies and also facilitated connections with different researchers across the world and today they are all supporting the endeavor to build capacity for malaria surveillance in Tanzania,” Dr. Ishengoma shared.
We also heard from experts, regional partners and WIPO Re:Search member companies about the importance of intellectual property and innovation for better health and economic development. Dr. Nhlanhla Msomi, President of AfricaBio provided his perspective on how to leverage licensing and partnership opportunities to advance innovation.
“We are continuously evolving and defining a new paradigm for innovation that addresses our needs on the African continent. We look at strategies to improve access around manufacturing in local and global value chains in order to achieve our socio-political and public health goals,” said Dr. Msomi, adding, “…we would like to see partnerships that go back in the value chain and leverage our intellectual resources in Africa. One of the ways to create capacity on the continent is to think smartly about using our clinical research excellence as an arbitrage to shift towards discovery science.”
In closing, WIPO’s Director of the Global Challenges Division, Ms. Amy Dietterich, offered a vote of thanks and reiterated the main messages that emerged from the event, recognizing the importance of working with individuals, institutions and companies on the ground to find solutions to under-addressed diseases, including NTDs, tuberculosis and malaria.
What were the key takeaways from the event?
While the session celebrated significant progress made over the last 10 years, it was apparent that some major challenges persist. The African region continues to carry a disproportionally high burden of NTDs, malaria and tuberculosis infections.
One of the recurring points presented as a solution to these persisting challenges was to consider innovation markets as ecosystems involving multiple layers of actors including primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational institutions of learning, governments, financiers, intellectual property and technology transfer offices as well as private sector companies. Ensuring fluid interaction between these actors, it was suggested, would be a prime way to strengthen the continent’s research and production capabilities.
Another key takeaway relates to the immense potential to leverage Africa’s research capacity through the establishment of strategic institutional arrangements. A point was raised that when interacting with the global market, there is a window of opportunity for African countries to pool resources and capacities rather than operate as 54 separate countries.
Demand-driven research was also one of the crosscutting themes throughout the event, which highlighted the significance of local participation in the R&D process and in the technology transfer process.
To learn more about the African members, collaborations and assets mentioned during this event, please visit the WIPO Re:Search Resource Platform.
We also invite you to explore the immersive virtual exhibition, ‘IP for a Healthier World’ commemorating the first 10 years of WIPO Re:Search.