The health-products sector may be among the biggest and most profitable in the world, but its work has not always benefited sub-Saharan Africa, one of the globe’s most disease-ridden regions. A new series of papers by a University of Toronto team, however, details how many potentially effective, low-cost products – from human odour samples that repel mosquitoes to dipstick tests for malaria and other illnesses – are being developed in those African countries themselves. The only problem, says the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, is that no one has stepped forward with the funds needed to test, prove and eventually commercialize the drugs and devices.
Led by Dr. Peter Singer, the centre calls for a venture capital fund of some kind to kickstart the health products, something it argues would lead to better health, more jobs and increased prosperity in the area. The ideas developed by African scientists and waiting to be marketed, include:
– an extract from the plant Tylosema fassoglensis that researchers in Kenya believe can treat the symptoms of HIV, but needs money to conduct clinical trials to prove its effectiveness
– a monoclonal-antibody-based dipstick, invented in Ghana, that can be used to detect Schistosoma, a common, dangerous parasitic disease, in urine, making a trip to a far-flung hospital for diagnosis unnecessary;
– a fuel-free medical-waste incinerator developed in Uganda, that could cheaply dispose of waste, and be easily portable in rural areas; and
– Human odours isolated and patented by Kenyan scientists that can repel insects.
Said one paper by the U of T group:
The next big step in global health is to unlock this potential to create new opportunities to provide a pathway to prosperity, jobs, and better health.