Minister Naledi Pandor: 22nd Session of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) board of governors meeting

Minister Pandor's speech at the 22nd session of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Board of Governors meeting

Prof.Dr. Hamdy Abel Aziz Moursy, Prof. Mauro Giacca, Director-General ICGEB, ministers, directors-general, representatives

The decision to host an ICGEB component in Africa has helped us to deal with Africa's infectious diseases burden, which kills thousands of people every day.

South Africa'smain focus as a country has been on HIV/AIDS and TB. We have built up strong research in the basic sciences that underpin infectious disease (immunology, virology, microbiology, biochemistry & genetics) and in clinical research. The connection between the two enables very strong laboratory support to be given to clinical research that is aimed at applying novel interventions in the field (diagnostics, vaccines and drugs).

At the moment we see more and more clinical testing and development taking place in South Africa.

The South African government has committed itself to the establishment of initiatives and infrastructure that will assist in the drug development value chain. This includes medicinal chemistry, high-throughput screening, preclinical testing facilities and capabilities and the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

This year we committed to providing anti-retroviral treatment to everyone who needs it.

The Ketlaphela consortium is constructing a facility for the local manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients for anti-retrovirals, as well as formulated tablets for governments ARV treatment programme.

South Africa has a bio-economy strategy. Over the next decade, we have an ambitious plan to become an emerging world leader in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, based on our indigenous resources and expanding knowledge base.

Building on existing networks and creating new synergies, we also plan to extend our collaborations in this regard with partners in both developed and developing countries, including research institutions, governments, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and international organisations.

Partners such as the World health Organisation, the Council on Health Research and Development, the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation are very valuable in this process.

It is through these innovative vehicles that the advances in medicine and public health have continued to improve lives for many and to postpone death for some.

The ICGEB is an eminent example of how advances in medicine and public health can put together limited individual resources within nation states to create a substantial international force for the good.

As we all know, biotechnology can and must play a key role in addressing many of the challenges facing the African continent in particular and the developing world as a whole.

Africa today is an ideal environment in which to establish new hubs of research. The promise for young researchers, working in a scaffolded and supportive environment is immense.

So let me take this opportunity to say that South Africa is proud of its research achievements in the health and life sciences.

South African universities are among the leading 1% of universities in the world in several disciplines – clinical medicine, plant and animal science, social sciences, environment ecology, geosciences, and bio-chemistry.

Cape Town leads the country in clinical medicine. It has an international reputation in medical research that goes back to the heart transplant era, the cat scan, and even earlier. It’s not something that can be built up overnight, but it is something that can be run down in a short time through underfunding.

Particular sectors of the economy can be powerful drivers of growth and innovation on their own. But those sectors need to be able to draw on indigenous academic excellence. The key element is the emergence of a particular economic sector based on university excellence in the same field.

The ICGEB has made an enormous contribution to the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine and in turn to the University of Cape Town.

The central role played by science in economic development is increasingly acknowledged internationally, and there is no doubt that scientific knowledge and innovation could sustain our Continent’s development process and ensure that we meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

Being an ICGEB member has offered us new opportunities to further our National Biotechnology Strategy through participation in advanced ICGEB collaborative research programmes and comprehensive training schemes. In addition, we have been able to participate in a high-level intergovernmental forum where policy issues related to bio-safety and technology transfer are discussed.

In closing, the ICGEB needs to clearly define targets and measures that drive performance - outcomes and outputs - for the developing world.

These performance metrics must not merely focus on scientific knowledge outputs in the developing world, but on priority assistance defined and required by the developing world to harness the outputs of science.

We don’t need more medicines to be produced in the developed world and sold to Africa.

We do need medicines that are developed, manufactured, and distributed in the developing world.

We do need to create the jobs here, we do need to develop the manufacturing capabilities here, and we need to ensure the critical pandemic supplies are here.

My challenge to the Board of Governors of the ICGEB is to evolve its model, to address the science-based needs of the developing world.

Here in South Africa, and with respect specifically to our ICGEB Cape Town component, we want to work with the ICGEB to develop the model from a knowledge output model to harnessing ICGEB intellectual property for early commercialisation.

The ICGEB should consider providing greater leadership and competence in fund raising; and providing a mechanism for biotechnology support for national and regional priorities of the developing world.

If it can be demonstrated to the membership - and to governments elsewhere - that the ICGEB is a highly effective international organisation that cost-effectively assists and supports science-based priorities in the developing world, surely it would be possible to ramp up support for ICGEB initiatives?

The ICGEB has been a phenomenal success.

It needs to evolve to maintain its pre-eminence in the world.

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