Building bridges and gateways for communication between operators in clinical research and development, and between pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and the existing potential in developing North African countries thus makes sense.
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New Opportunities
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A large part of orphan genetic diseases are frequent in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco (neuromuscular diseases, immune deficiencies, enzymatic deficits, thalassemias, etc.). Moreover, lots of these diseases are currently subjects of innovative product development in Europe and the United States (gene therapy, cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, enzymotherapy, etc.). Because of the rarity of patients with these diseases, conducting clinical trials in North African countries, and partnering with local teams need definitely to be considered. This would enlarge the currently available market with access to new populations very close to the European populations on the genetically and metabolically point of view, either for the conduct of clinical and epidemiological studies or for the performance of genetic diagnosis.
Other diseases, called neglected, are also common in these countries. Some of these pathologies (leishmaniosis, tuberculosis) are investigated for clinical development by European or American public and/or private organizations. This re-emphasizes the interest of involving North-African teams. |
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Finally, more widespread disease group may also interestingly be considered either for clinical trials or for market expansion in North African countries. Such diseases as diabetes, hypertension, metabolic diseases, cancer diseases and certain degenerative pathologies gather the existence of local characteristics (progressive or complicated forms, naive patients for certains therapies etc.) with a large market potential in a region of around 85 million-inhabitants.