From research to control: Translating research findings into health policies, operational guidelines and health products

Although Africa's health research capacity is still weak, African R&D institutions are contributing immensely to the development of health policies, guidelines and products essential for diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of Africa's leading health problems.In order to increase Africa's contributions, all health research stakeholders should participate in setting health research priorities and agenda, followed by establishing health research networks and consortia, holistic capacity strengthening, and gathering of baseline data.The evaluation of candidate tools, and the research preceding it, must abide by international scientific and ethical standards, and must involve institutional and national regulatory authorities.The funding of product development and product availability in Africa benefits from national governments, bilateral, multilateral, and philanthropic agencies. When a trial is over poses many social and ethical issues, and not infrequently existing guidelines may not be adequate. Mechanisms for making products available in resource constrained countries are presented, as are problems relating to manufacturing, markets and procurement. So are obligations to trial and research communities.The paper concludes by outlining the obligations of each stakeholder, in order to make research products readily available in resource constrained settings.