Customer Profile
Voxiva collaborated with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) at the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) to develop the Africa Clinical Trials Portal (ACTP). MVI is a focused vaccine development program created in 1999 through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MVI's mission is to accelerate the development of promising malaria vaccines and ensure their availability and accessibility in the developing world.

Situation and Challenges
Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis (TB) account for the majority of morbidity and mortality in Africa. The global health community has responded to these international health crises with increased resources for infectious disease prevention, treatment and control. Consequently, the number of clinical trials being conducted in Africa is increasing dramatically.

However, a comprehensive up-to-date resource for information on clinical trials in Africa does not currently exist, which significantly limits knowledge-sharing, networking and awareness among researchers on a continent-wide basis. Largely due to this lack of information exchange, historical approaches to the conduct of clinical trials in the developing world have led to repetitive cycles of building similar, yet temporary infrastructure that dissolves once a trial concludes. This redundancy not only increases the financial cost of conducting trials, but also poses significant opportunities lost for the countries and villages where such trials take place.

Solution
ACTP is a comprehensive, on-line resource for easily accessible information on malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB clinical trials in Africa. The goal is for ACTP to facilitate knowledge-sharing within the clinical trials community and provide resources that will ultimately strengthen research capacity and promote scientific collaboration in Africa.

The ACTP Trials Database provides information on all pre-licensure clinical trials of malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB drugs, vaccines and microbicides that are currently underway in Africa. The Site Database displays information on clinical trial sites in Africa. Interactive web-based mapping technology allows users to view the locations of clinical trials and sites on a continent-wide basis. The ACTP Clinical Trials Toolkit provides access to current news, research and regulatory guidelines, jobs, training opportunities, conferences and other useful resources for the African clinical trials community. Collaborative worksites enable networking and knowledge-sharing among researchers and across clinical trial sites. Interactive discussion boards provide a forum for users to discuss current issues surrounding malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB, and other important topics such as ethics, regulatory guidelines and training.

Benefits
The benefits of ACTP include:

  Unprecedented access to information on malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB clinical trials in Africa.

  Opportunities for collaboration, networking and knowledge-sharing among researchers on a continent-wide basis.

  A forum for the discussion of important topics and challenges facing the African clinical trials community including training, regulatory guidelines, capacity building, and ethics.

  Encouraging testing of promising drugs, vaccines and microbicides for diseases that disproportionately affect Africa.

  Provision of support for the developers of drugs, vaccines and microbicides, investigators, and other members of the clinical trials community.

  Promotion of investments in a sustainable clinical trials infrastructure that strengthens the capacity of African researchers, research centers and institutions.

  Advancement of regional and international collaboration among donor agencies, public health organizations, research institutions, and researchers.

  Contribution to the availability of products to treat and prevent malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB.

ACTP's vision is to be the authoritative source for information on malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB clinical trials in Africa and ultimately, to help improve the overall health of the African people.