{"id":127970,"date":"2018-06-28T11:22:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=127970"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:23:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:23:04","slug":"mapping-kenyas-clinical-trial-landscape","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2018\/mapping-kenyas-clinical-trial-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Kenya\u2019s Clinical Trial Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 28, 2018<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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The clinical trials department team of Kenya\u2019s Pharmacy & Poisons Board takes a tea break together at 10 a.m. Then, MPH student Kofi Addo gets down to business. \u201cI get my tea, I get to my desk, I crank some music, and I start data mining,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The music is usually bossa nova, and the data are from all of the clinical trials and medicines approved by the Pharmacy & Poisons Board, which is similar to America\u2019s Food and Drug Administration. For his practicum, supported by the Santander University Scholars Program<\/a>, Addo is analyzing the organization\u2019s database to find trends in the kinds of clinical trials conducted in the country.<\/p>\n

At any given time, Addo says, there are about 200 clinical trials happening in Kenya. How many are for pharmaceuticals, and how many are for other medical products? How many are for HIV, for other infectious diseases, or for non-communicable diseases? How does the breakdown of diseases targeted by these trials compare with the breakdown of diseases people in Kenya actually have? Who is sponsoring these clinical trials, and why did they choose Kenya?<\/p>\n

\u201cI read of lot of clinical trial protocols to extract the relevant variables,\u201d Addo says, \u201cthen I record them in a data collection tool I created to organize the data.\u201d This will allow the Pharmacy & Poisons Board to understand how all manner of variables are interacting in the country\u2019s clinical trials landscape. \u201cRight now we’re working on getting the data, and then we can go from there,\u201d Addo says.<\/p>\n

Addo is completing certificates in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation (CAPDIE)<\/a> and in Pharmaceutical Development, Delivery, and Access<\/a>, and was originally interested in a practicum that would apply design, implementation, and evaluation to pharmaceutical development. He reached out to Paul Ashigbie<\/a>, a global health research fellow focusing on pharmaceuticals<\/a>. Ashigbie put him in touch with Edward Abwao, the head of clinical trials at the Pharmacy & Poisons Board, who became Addo\u2019s practicum supervisor. Ashigbie continues to offer advice and support throughout the practicum, Addo says.<\/p>\n

At SPH, Addo says he became interested in the role that public health knowledge and values can play in the pharmaceutical industry. From the way drugs are created to how they are distributed, a public health lens can ensure \u201ceverything is ethical, and streamlined, and proper,\u201d he says. Addo also completed a free online course about Good Clinical Practice (GCP) offered by the National Drug Abuse Clinical Trial Network and read extensively about clinical trials in low and middle-income countries to prepare for his practicum<\/p>\n

Working at the Pharmacy & Poisons Board has shown him just how important regulatory bodies are when it comes to pharmaceuticals and public health. \u201cWithout regulation, there is no transparency,\u201d he says. Companies in higher-income countries conduct their clinical trials in low- and middle-income countries like Kenya because it is cheaper, Addo says, and there may be a bigger pool of people with the disease of interest\u2014but sometimes a company is also looking to conduct a trial under looser or less enforced regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople sometimes want to take advantage,\u201d he says, \u201cso prospective registration and regulation of clinical trials is critical. It ensures that transparency and data collection starts from the jump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working at a computer until his eyes are sore may not be the most glamorous job, but Addo says the experience is making him even more passionate about the regulatory and drug development side of pharmaceuticals. \u201cI didn’t expect to enjoy it so much!\u201d he says. \u201cI can see myself working in this area. It\u2019s has helped me hone my data analysis skills and solidified the path that I want to take in bridging the gap between public health and pharmaceuticals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Kofi Addo is taking over the SPH Instagram account from July 2 through 6 to share photos from Kenya. Follow along <\/em>at Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/em><\/a> and with the hashtag #BUSPHSummer18.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Practicum student Kofi Addo works with Pharmacy & Poisons Board to analyze trends in clinical trials conducted in Kenya. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":128040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1895,1899,1472],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3528,3531,3532,3538,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/127970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127970"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/127970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173457,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/127970\/revisions\/173457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=127970"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=127970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}