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Human Health Portfolio

The infectious disease burden continues to exact a huge price both in human suffering and in contributing to poverty and underdevelopment.

Our group aims to have a portfolio of Human Health projects whose composition is determined by:
• Medical need as determined by current availability of drugs, disease burden and epidemiological trends (including development of disease resistance to available treatments),
• Properties of the available drugs in terms of efficacy, safety, costs
• Opportunities available through R&D activities in academia and the pharmaceutical industry,

Diseases within our mandate include HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.  There are no vaccines available for HIV/AIDS and malaria. New drugs are desperately needed and will continue to be needed for the foreseeable future.

The objectives of the Human Health Portfolio within BioPAD are:

• Identify and develop projects leading to the development of novel diagnostic tests, drugs and other products for diseases carried out by research teams of collaborating investigators and institutions in our region.
• Provide a platform and framework for scientific, legal and ethical support to facilitate the commercialization of research outcomes in biotechnology in selected focus areas.
• Facilitate creation of 'spin-offs' (e.g. public private partnerships, networks of academic institutions and not-for profit foundations) focusing on and dedicated to innovation for discovery and development of drugs and diagnostic tests in South Africa.

Current Activities within portfolio
A significant portfolio that includes cancer and HIV has been established. We are also supporting the following technology platforms: Metagenomics, Metabolomics, Drug delivery, Novel delivery systems for vaccines, Bioprospecting, Pre-clinical Drug Development Platform. 
See link for current projects and platforms within Human Health.

Pre-clinical Drug Development Platform

• Our Pre-clinical platform strategy seeks to address the complex issues associated with the future of drug development in South Africa, and addresses ways of achieving accelerated development of safe and more effective medicines, aiming to revitalize the South African biopharmaceutical research environment. The course for establishing this Pre-clinical platform is to first develop a Strategic Plan that will encompass the whole path from discovery of a new drug target to the validation during pre-clinical development and approval stages of a new drug compound. We envisage that this plan and strategy will be agreed by all the relevant stakeholders via meetings and workshops. The three key bottlenecks in the drug development process that will be addressed by this strategy are human capital development for academic and industry needs, infrastructure for development and manufacturing and the regulatory approval process.
  This comprehensive strategy with a detailed roadmap will lead to the establishment of the Pre-clinical Drug Development platform in South Africa. This Platform will deliver added value to the drug discovery and development process and to individual stakeholders by providing a more effective, vibrant and dynamic scientific environment and will create a significant tool to accelerate drug candidates through to clinical evaluation. The national Pre-clinical Drug Development Platform (PDDP) under development will be a centre or facility that services the needs of the broad biotechnology and pharmaceutical community in SA.  The proposed facility will not be a standard laboratory or animal facility, but rather a facility with all the required regulatory controls, and in this case GLP and GMP, required by national and international regulatory bodies.
  The pre-clinical drug testing facility will promote the development of the local Biotech Industry by providing a testing platform for R&D companies and academic researchers in early stage drug development. By providing a facility that complies with Good Laboratory Practices, Good Manufacturing Practices, MCC regulations and other international regulatory bodies, the project aims to attract Pharmaceutical Multinational companies and big CROs to spend some of their R&D budgets locally, further driving growth of the local industry.

If you are interested in submitting a project proposal, please download the pre-proposal form.

Portfolio Manager
Bonginkosi Gumede, PhD
Portfolio Manager: Animal Health
Tel: +27 (0) 12 844 0145
Fax: +27 (0) 12 844 0153
E-mail: bonginkosi@biopad.org.za