Media Advisory

USD 600 million endowment fund to be proposed at African Network of Drug and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) meeting in Cape Town

Meeting to be held 4-7 October, 2009
Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

28 September: Plans for a first-ever African owned and managed innovation fund to finance drugs and diagnostics research will be the focus of talks at the second meeting of key stakeholders supporting the formation of a new African Network for Drug and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) to be held between 4-7 October in Cape Town, South Africa.

This meeting is being hosted by the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), and organized by the MRC, TDR (the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases), the Department of Science and Technology South Africa, and the Department of Health South Africa. 

Discussions for arriving at a plan for the formation of ANDI are being put forward by a task force composed of select heads of African research institutions, policy makers, representative of Africans in the Diaspora, international and multilateral organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission and supported by observers from relevant African organizations, public-private partnerships and NGOs.  

Available speakers include:

• ANDI Task Force Chairman Dr Tom Mboya-Okeyo (Kenyan Ambassador to the UN Geneva)
• WHO/TDR Director Dr Robert Ridley
• WHO/TDR Innovation Leader Dr Solomon Nwaka
• South African Medical Research Council President and ANDI Task Force Member Professor Anthony Mbewu
• African Development Bank, Health Expert and ANDI Task Force Co-chair Dr Tshinko Ilunga
• South African Department of Science and Technology and ANDI Local Organizing Committee Member Dr Theresa Smit

Full programme and background material available at:  http://www.who.int/tdr/svc/news-events/events/tdr/andi-09

To register for the meeting or request interviews, please contact:

Jamie Guth
WHO/TDR Communications
+41 79 441 2289 Mobile
+41 22 791 1538  Land line
guthj@who.int

Julian Jacobs
South African Medical Research Council
082 454 4902
Julian.Jacobs@mrc.ac.za

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About TDR
The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) is a global programme of scientific collaboration established in 1975, sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank and World Health Organization, and executed by WHO in Geneva, Switzerland. Its focus is on working with institutions in low and middle income countries on research into neglected diseases of the poor, with the goal of improving existing approaches and developing new ways to prevent, diagnose, treat and control these diseases. For more information, visit: www.who.int/tdr.

About the MRC
The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) is a statutory organisation established by an Act of Parliament in 1969. Its mission is to improve the nation’s health and quality of life through promoting and conducting relevant and responsive health research. To learn more about the MRC, please visit: www.mrc.ac.za.