Africa still lacks capacity

It is vital for African scientists to enhance the continent's drug discovery capability to address its health needs, Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price told about 55 scientists from around the globe.

This was at the opening of the first Global Institute for Bio-Exploration Africa workshop on developing novel strategies for natural product-based drug discovery for tropical diseases, hosted at UCT on 4 November by Prof Kelly Chibale of the Dept of Chemistry (above).

This expertise exists, but lacks capacity in several areas critical to biomedical research and drug development on the continent, Price added.