Many potential clinical sites in Africa need to develop additional capacity before they can take part in Stringent Regulatory Authority (SRA) - quality clinical trials. By entering the Clinical Trials Community Africa Network (CTCAN), sites and laboratories will be able to access a clinical trial preparedness framework. Through the proposed capability development activities, sites and laboratories will be strengthened to generate SRA-quality data, which in turn will be informative for new policies and practices, and lead to earlier access to new treatments.

While governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), pharmaceutical companies, and other public-private sector actors have established important capacity development programmes in Africa, CTCAN draws the different programmes and data together in, or linked to, a single platform. Alignment between these Africa-led programmes and clinical research programmes of clinical trials sponsors will ultimately create a greater, sustainable, and cost-effective impact.

The CTCAN project will lay the foundation for the creation of a coordinated and sustainable umbrella network of clinical trial sites and laboratories capable of undertaking quality clinical research in Africa. The objective is to make the network easily accessible to African and international trial sponsors. A clinical trial preparedness framework will provide the necessary tools to assess site and laboratory capabilities and any potential quality and operational gaps they may have, along with the instruments to mitigate and overcome these gaps.

The CTCAN, an EDCTP-3 supported action, enables an environment that brings more clinical trials to the continent, including large scale clinical trials and disease outbreak response activities. The network will foster coordination in clinical research by providing a platform for all African stakeholders including clinical researchers, regulators, industry partners, and other relevant stakeholders, to define priority diseases for clinical research. The network will also raise awareness of the existing capacity of sites and laboratories across Africa, contribute to the operationalisation and harmonisation of regulatory processes across the region, and strengthen less experienced sites and labs through a clinical trial preparedness framework, while encouraging inter- and cross-continental knowledge and expertise sharing.

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Specifically, the CTCAN is designed to: 

• Develop an umbrella sub-Saharan African (SSA) network consolidating relevant subnetworks of clinical trial sites and laboratories.
• Supplement the network with epidemiological data associated with the sites and laboratories, clear and operationalised regulatory information required for clinical trial start-up and conduct.
• Develop a framework to enhance capacity and increase clinical trial preparedness.
• Make all this critical information available through a single electronic platform: the Clinical Trials Community platform. 

The SFA Foundation is implementing the CTCAN in collaboration with nuvoteQ.io, BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), Global Public Health R&D, a Division of Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Fondation Merieux, and Medicines Development for Global Health Ltd (MDGH).

By driving and coordinating the scientific aspect of this project, SFA Foundation will underpin, and support comprehensive medical and healthcare strategies developed by African health leaders with the ultimate objective of bringing new innovations to patients faster and enabling African scientists and physicians to discover and develop African solutions for African challenges.