Clinical Research and Product Development Fellowship (TMA2019IF-2859)
October 10, 2022 | EDCTP Fellowship Profile | Reading time: 4 min
About the fellow
Japhet Anim is a Clinical Research and Development Fellow at the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC), Ghana. He was trained as a Development Planner and was employed by KHRC as a Study Coordinator in 2010, where he supported the pivotal RTSS malaria vaccine phase III trial that evaluated the efficacy of the RTS,S/AS01E vaccine against malaria across diverse malaria transmission settings in Africa, until 2014.
His growing passion for clinical research led him to pursue a master’s degree in Clinical Trials from the University of Ghana. After that, he served as Study Coordinator for the RTSS phase IIIb trial which demonstrated that the RTS,S/AS01 can be co-administered with vitamin A, yellow fever, measles and rubella vaccines without immune response impairment to any vaccine antigen or negative safety effect. He has since supported several clinical research projects at KHRC.
Japhet was hosted by the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) in Heidelberg, Germany, for a training period of one year, from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. EVI is a non-profit Product Development Partnership (PDP) that supports global efforts to develop safe, effective, and affordable vaccines against diseases of poverty and emerging infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Fellowship is funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), a programme under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research & Innovation (see: https://www.edctp.org/clinical-research-and-product-development-fellowships-2019/).
About Fellowship
The Clinical Research and Product Development Fellowship scheme is jointly implemented by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) at the World Health Organization (WHO) (see: http://www.edctp.org/call/clinical-research-and-product-development-fellowships-crdf-joint-call-with-who-tdr-the-special-programme-for-research-and-training-in-tropical-diseases-2019/).
Researchers from LMICs who are involved in clinical research activities have limited opportunities to acquire experience and develop skills for conducting clinical trials outside an academic or public sector setting. As a result, there are few researchers and clinical staff from LMICs assuming leading roles in clinical research for poverty-related diseases (PRDs). The development of human capacities through fellowships will lead to enhanced and sustainable research capacity in LMICs on diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for PRDs by supporting career progression and retention of researchers in LMICs.
As part of the EDCTP Association’s capacity building efforts, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and the EDCTP Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2013 to implement a fellowship scheme that offers placements in European-based companies to individual researchers and clinical staff from sub-Saharan Africa working in the implementation of clinical trials. The purpose of the joint scheme is to provide funding to actions that aim to support researchers and key members of clinical trial research teams from LMICs to acquire specific skills in clinical research and development through placements in academic affiliated research organisations, CROs, pharmaceutical companies and PDPs.
Placements supported by the EDCTP2 programme are for a period of 15 months (3 months will be used to prepare for the placement), following which there will be a re-integration period of 6 months.
Impact
The Fellowship seeks strengthen the fellow’s capabilities in the management of clinical research implementation according to international guidelines particularly for early-stage vaccine development.
The training enabled the fellow to learn the practical aspects of managing vaccine development, in both pre-clinical and clinical stages, to understand the financial, legal and intellectual property management of vaccine projects and to participate in the fund raising activities for vaccine development. The fellow has gained transferrable skills and competencies that will particularly be useful in his home organisation.
