To foster scientific excellence in the evaluation and supervision of medicines, for the benefit of public health, the Ministry in charge of health of the Republic of Congo has initiated a plan to strengthen the regulatory capacity of its Department of Pharmacy and Medicines implemented by its director, Dr Boniface OKOUYA.

This process is based on a strong commitment to pharmaceutical reform for which the law will be promulgated shortly. It is in this momentum that the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicines in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africlinique project, a regulatory capacity building project in Central Africa (funded by the European Union through EDCTP), will carry out a self-assessment of its pharmaceutical regulatory system using the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) developed by the WHO.

This self-assessment will allow the assessment of the level of maturity of pharmaceutical regulation in the country as well as the identification of gaps and the establishment of an institutional development plan.

All parties are committed to an effective implementation of the improvement measures that will result from this assessment

As part of its capacity building activities for regulatory authorities in Central Africa through the CANTAM and Africlinique projects, the FCRM participated from the 23rd to 24th October 2020 at the Cristal Hotel de Kintele, (north of Brazzaville) in developing a draft decree creating a national pharmacovigilance system in the Republic of Congo organised by the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicines. This workshop aimed at:

Updating the above-mentioned draft decree (developed since 2011), before its submission for signature to the Minister in charge of Public Health;

Development of the national pharmacovigilance guide. The FCRM was represented by Mr Jolivet Mayela, in charge of the CANTAM and Africlinique projects

Our junior CRFilMT researcher, Ms Linda DJUNE, made substantial findings in the fight against Soil Transmitted helminths

Webinar on grant writing, scientific writing and publication of articles in journals.

The Central Africa Clinical Research Network (CANTAM), with the aim of improving the writing capacities of scientific publications and project proposals of scientists in the subregion organised two training webinars on :

1. Writing of a scientific publication, led by Prof TP Velavan from the University of Tubingen (Germany) on July 09, 2020, with objective of learning and transferring to participants the necessary skills required for writing and publishing quality articles in peer reviewed journals.


2. Project and grant writing webinar, led by Dr Sylvie Kwedi from University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon), from 29th to 30th October 2020 with the objectives of strengthening the writing capacities of scientists in the sub-region was a serious identified gap.

These trainings brought together participants from all parts of Africa and beyond with an excellent feedback from these participants. Periodic sessions on these themes will henceforth be organised to better support scientists in the sub-region in particulared helminths

Two days Webinar for regulatory authorities and research ethics committees in Central Africa, 05th - 06th August 2020.

As part of CANTAM activities (project to strengthen clinical research capacities in the Central African region) and also Africlinique (project to strengthen the capacity of regulatory authorities in Central Africa), FCRM organised a join event of two days ( 05th - 06th August 2020) webinar on theme: “Conditions of research conducted in preparation for or response to epidemics of infectious diseases”. This brought together regulatory authorities from Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, CAR, DRC and Chad. The participants presented the level of research regulations in their respective countries and brainstormed on the various challenges encountered in this season of the COVID-19 pandemic.