Africa Clinical Research Network Podcast

Africa Clinical Research Network
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Alternative Health

The ACRN Podcast is your gateway to Africa-led conversations on clinical research, health innovation, and policy. Hosted by the Africa Clinical Research Network, this series brings together researchers, clinicians, regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders from across the continent to explore how Africa is shaping—and must continue to shape—the future of global clinical research. Each episode features expert insights from African physician-scientists and innovators, discussions on emerging health technologies, policy dialogues influencing Africa’s research ecosystem, and stories that center African leadership in global health. Our goal is to spotlight credible, African-led voices at the intersection of science, policy, and industry, and to advance collaborative, community-driven research. Whether you’re a policymaker, regulator, researcher, funder, or anyone passionate about Africa’s role in global health, this podcast is for you. Expect honest conversations, nuanced perspectives, and a commitment to challenging assumptions—including our own. Stay tuned for our official launch and join us as we elevate Africa’s voice in clinical research!

  1. 1d ago

    Financing the Future: From Deals to Delivery, Abuja to Every State | ACRN Health Podcast EP14

    Send us Fan Mail Financing the Future: From Deals to Delivery, Abuja to Every State In the third and final episode of the PVAC Podcast series, we follow the money. Olumide Lawson (PVAC Healthcare Deals Team Lead) and Dr. Zara Ajus Abba-Aji (PVAC Sub-national Team Lead) explain why policy alone can't unlock Nigeria's healthcare sector, and what it actually takes to move investment from Abuja into all 36 states. We cover the real barriers to scale, which are bankability, perceived risk, fragmented supply chains and brain drain. We also get into how PVAC helps businesses become investment-ready, how the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund creates a market across 8,000+ facilities, and where our guests would invest $100M tomorrow. The episode closes with lessons for the rest of the continent on coordination, open borders and making the African Continental Free Trade Area work. Key topics: healthcare financing, blended finance, the missing middle, de-risking investment, pooled procurement, subnational health delivery, local manufacturing, AfCFTA.

  2. Sep 30

    Bundibugyo: Africa's Fight Against a New Ebola Threat | Dr Tariro Makadzange | ACRN Health Podcast EP13

    Send us Fan Mail The Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the DRC has surpassed 7,000 cases, and this isn't the Ebola virus we've dealt with before. It requires entirely new vaccines, new interventions, and a fundamentally different approach. In this episode, ACRN CEO Dr. Tariro Makadzange, MD (Harvard), DPhil (Oxford), Infectious Disease Physician, Viral Immunologist, Stanford Clinical Assistant Professor, and TIME100 Health 2026 Honoree, joins Alliance & Partnership Director Dr. Wilfred Gurupira to break down the science behind the outbreak, the vaccine candidates in the pipeline, and what it will take for Africa to build resilient health systems that work in peacetime and in crisis. From policy frameworks and domestic financing to continental unity, Dr. Makadzange shares her "three wishes" for Africa's health sovereignty and why the continent must lead its own future in clinical research.

  3. Sep 24

    Building Nigeria's Clinical Trials Engine | Muhammad Balarabe | ACRN Health Podcast EP12

    Send us Fan Mail In Episode 1 of the PVAC Series we heard why Nigeria built PVAC. Now we get into how it works, starting with clinical trials. Dr. Wilfred Gurupira talks with Muhammad Balarabe, Ecosystem Enablement Team Lead at PVAC, about why clinical trials matter well beyond labs and pharma. For patients they're a way to access new medicines, and for the economy they bring in investment and create skilled jobs. In this episode: Why the public should care about clinical trialsWhat PVAC's national landscape assessment of trial sites found, including sites that once ran major trials but lost that capacity over timeWhat makes a site "trial-ready": people, technology, biosafety and systemsThe hub-and-spoke plan to activate 437 trial sites across Nigeria's six geopolitical zonesThe new Nigeria Clinical Research ConsortiumWhy training alone isn't enough without lasting capacityHow locally generated evidence and patents can turn research into export value for a West African market of 400M+ people"Trials in Nigeria does not mean cheap trials." Coming up in Episode 3, Financing the Future: From Deals to Delivery, Abuja to Every State, we follow the money. Subscribe, share and join the conversation on research in Africa.

  4. Sep 23

    Who Benefits? Unpacking Africa's Role in the Global Trials Industry | Dr Huwaida Bulhan | ACRN Health Podcast Episode 11

    Send us Fan Mail Are clinical trials part of a global industry? And if so, who's really benefiting? In this episode, Dr Wilfred Gurupira sits down with Dr Huwaida Bulhan, a physician and public health specialist who has spent over 15 years running clinical trials across sub-Saharan Africa. Together, they unpack why the $60 billion clinical trials industry has historically left Africa at the margins, despite the continent carrying 25% of the world's disease burden. From structural barriers and unequal power dynamics to the case for African-led science, this is the conversation the industry needs to have.

  5. Sep 10

    Why Nigeria Built PVAC | ACRN Health Podcast EP10

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when Africa's largest country decides it can no longer outsource its health future? In this episode, Dr Wilfred Gurupira sits down with Dr Abdu Mukhtar, National Coordinator at PVAC (Nigeria's Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain), to explore why Nigeria created PVAC and what it's designed to solve. They unpack the strategic vulnerability of depending on imported medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics, the fragmentation across Nigeria's health value chain, and why the country's population, market size, and disease burden make this agenda urgent. This is the origin story of one of Africa's most ambitious health sector reforms. This is Episode 1 of a 3-part series: Building Nigeria's Health Value Chain: The PVAC Story.

  6. Aug 21

    When the Aid Runs Out: Who Will Fund Africa’s Health Future? | ACRN Health Podcast EP09

    Send us Fan Mail When the Aid Runs Out: Who Will Fund Africa’s Health Future? As external health assistance declines and debt pressures national budgets, a critical question is emerging: who will finance Africa’s health future? In this episode of the ACRN Health Podcast, Wilfred Gurupura speaks with Hon. Modou Lamin B. Bah, Chairperson of the Network of African Parliamentary Committees of Health and Vice Chairperson of the Health Committee in the Parliament of The Gambia. They explore the political and financial choices behind Africa’s health systems — from domestic resource mobilisation and the Abuja health financing commitment to universal health coverage, parliamentary accountability and reducing dependence on donor funding. The conversation also examines what health sovereignty means in practice: strengthening medicines regulation, supporting the African Medicines Agency, building research capacity and creating the conditions for trusted, high-quality medicines to be developed and manufactured in Africa. In this episode: Financing Africa’s health systems beyond aidThe power of parliaments over health budgetsDomestic resource mobilisation and smarter spendingHealth and pharmaceutical sovereigntyMade-in-Africa medicines and regulatory capacityThe African Medicines AgencyClinical research as part of Africa’s health infrastructureBringing citizens and young Africans into health decision-makingGuest: Hon. Modou Lamin B. Bah Host: Dr Wilfred Gurupira Africa’s health future cannot be outsourced. The question is how we build it ourselves.

  7. Jul 6

    Optimising regulation and ethics in research | ACRN Podcast EP08

    Send us Fan Mail Optimising Regulation and Ethics in Clinical Research: Building Faster, Smarter Trial Systems in Africa What happens before the first participant is ever enrolled in a clinical trial? Behind every breakthrough treatment lies months of regulatory reviews, ethics approvals, contracts, site preparation, and countless behind-the-scenes processes that determine how quickly new medicines reach the people who need them. In this episode of the ACRN Health Podcast, host Wilfred Gurupira is joined by Dr. Tariro Makadzange, CEO of the Africa Clinical Research Network (ACRN), and Knowledge Ushamba, ACRN's Regulatory Affairs Officer, to unpack the often-overlooked world of clinical trial startup. Together, they discuss why Africa conducts only a small fraction of the world's clinical trials despite carrying a significant share of the global disease burden, and explore practical solutions to make research more efficient, predictable, and globally competitive. In this episode, you'll learn:  What happens between developing a research protocol and enrolling the first participant.  Why ethics and regulatory approvals are essential—and why they often take longer than necessary.  The challenges of navigating different regulatory systems across African countries.  Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic on accelerating clinical trial approvals without compromising safety.  How regulatory harmonisation initiatives, including the African Medicines Agency (AMA), could transform research across the continent.  Why parallel reviews, common application systems, and stronger collaboration can dramatically reduce trial startup times.  How improving research systems benefits patients by bringing innovative treatments to communities sooner. Whether you're a researcher, policymaker, healthcare professional, student, or simply curious about how new medicines are developed, this conversation offers valuable insight into the systems that shape the future of healthcare innovation in Africa. 🎧 Listen now and discover how stronger regulatory systems can help Africa lead the next generation of clinical research.

  8. Jul 1

    ACRN`s IDRL Laboratory & CAP Accreditation | ACRN Podcast EP07

    Send us Fan Mail

See All (15)

Trailer

About

The ACRN Podcast is your gateway to Africa-led conversations on clinical research, health innovation, and policy. Hosted by the Africa Clinical Research Network, this series brings together researchers, clinicians, regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders from across the continent to explore how Africa is shaping—and must continue to shape—the future of global clinical research. Each episode features expert insights from African physician-scientists and innovators, discussions on emerging health technologies, policy dialogues influencing Africa’s research ecosystem, and stories that center African leadership in global health. Our goal is to spotlight credible, African-led voices at the intersection of science, policy, and industry, and to advance collaborative, community-driven research. Whether you’re a policymaker, regulator, researcher, funder, or anyone passionate about Africa’s role in global health, this podcast is for you. Expect honest conversations, nuanced perspectives, and a commitment to challenging assumptions—including our own. Stay tuned for our official launch and join us as we elevate Africa’s voice in clinical research!

Information