Asian Clinical Trial Network

Drug-resistant infections (DRIs) have recently been recognised as a major challenge by the G20 and the UN General Assembly, with a disproportionate impact on the people of Asia. Potential solutions will require multidisciplinary and multi-country collaboration in order to successfully address in terms of innovative discoveries, implementation of policies and roll-out and evaluation of the best evidence based clinical practices. The current model of clinical research in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is to fund individual clinical trials on an ad-hoc basis, with each trial requiring significant investment in research infrastructure and skills development in addition to the trial-specific costs. This model is inefficient scientifically, developmentally, and financially. In response to the challenge of AMR, Wellcome plans to set up a pilot clinical trial network (CTN) in SEA. The CTN will significantly increase the quality and efficiency of clinical trials in the region, resulting in an improved understanding of DRI, improved treatment of those infections and an increase in the supply of new drugs to fight AMR. The support hub for this clinical trial network will be based in Singapore.