Making North–South Collaborations Work: Facilitating Natural Product Drug Discovery in Africa

ManyDrug discoveryglobalAfrica North–South collaborationsCollaboration seek to address different aspects of the Sustainable DevelopmentDevelopment Goals (SDGs) for AfricaAfrica. The role of the North in these collaborations is crucial from a funding point of view. However, the realisation of the SDG objectives for AfricaAfrica will depend largely on strategies that are guided by the successes and challenges of previous and existing collaborative efforts. Globally, AfricaAfrica has the highest diseaseDisease burden with the leading causes of morbidity and mortality being malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS and more recently, cardiovascular diseasesDisease, diabetes and cancer. Neglected tropical diseasesDisease are also causing long-term detrimental healthHealth effects, resulting in huge social and economic losses. Ironically, the continent is endowed with a huge biodiversityBiodiversity resource that has the potential to provide novel and potent drug candidates but remains largely unexplored partly due to financial and infrastructural challenges. Developing the scientific researchResearch capabilities of African institutions towards drug discoveryDrug discovery through global networksNetwork is, therefore, an important component of improving healthHealth systems on the continent. This chapter examines experiences from three North–South collaborations—the Royal Society’s Leverhulme Trust AfricaAfrica Award (LTAA), Newton Advanced Fellowships (NAF) and Cambridge-AfricaAfrica Partnership for ResearchResearch Excellence (CAPREx)—and proposes the adoption of structures that extend the current focus on skill transfer to include the building and maintenance of sustainable infrastructure. It is believed that these thoughts and suggestions could promote sustainable collaborative researchResearch to provide good healthHealth and well-being (SDG3), quality educationEducation (SDG4), relevant infrastructure (SDG9) and reduced inequalitiesInequality (SDG10) in AfricaAfrica.