We participated in the 2nd Edition of the African Congress for Clinical Trials (ACCT), Lambarene, 10-14 Nov 2019. The theme for the Congress was “Clinical trial in Sub-Saharan Africa; Challenge or Opportunity?”

This excellent Congress organised by our CANTAM colleagues of CERMEL brought together researchers from all over the world and was the opportunity to tackle the major challenges of today's research.

Our sincere congratulations to both the CERMEL team and the ACCT organising committee for the success of the event. We all look forward and plan for the 3rd Edition next year.

The elimination of malaria in Africa will require collective awareness. The Central African Clinical Research Network (CANTAM) welcomes the initiative "Zero Malaria ! Starts With Me" and invites you all to participate actively.

As part of the multi-center Phase IIIb/IV PYRAMAX trial involving Central Africa countries (Cameroon, Rep of Congo, Gabon and Democratic Republic of Congo) it was necessary to train or strengthen regulatory authorities in their Pharmacovigilance competence under the leadership of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit and Pharmacovigilance (UPC-PV) from the university of Kinshasa.

Due to the fact that all the CANTAM countries are not at the same level of competence, UPC-PV has set up targeted training to meet up with the needs of each country.

It is in this context that stakeholders meeting involving National regulatory authorities of Cameroon, Rep of Congo and Gabon respectively and CANTAM members coordinated by Prof. Gauthier MESIA KAHUNU was organized. This activity contributes to encourage ownership.

At the different sites, the gaps were identified and the appropriate framework for the implementation that will be conducted during the second phase was established. Specifically, this second phase will consist of Human resources training workshops.

The work plan for the second phase of CANTAM on clinical research capacity building and development has also as deliverable, the implementation of new technologies that could boost development of activities within the network and spread to others in a sustainable way. The 3D printing is one of the new technology selected for this package in view of its creativity, gain in time and production cost.