Three impressive innovators have emerged as winners of the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) awards for their various solutions in the health sector for the continent’s burning malaria and HIV/AIDS problems, and Nigeria’s Dr. Eddy Agbo is one of them. A total of $150,000 was awarded to Dr. Valentin Agon of Benin, Imogen Wright of South Africa, and Dr. Eddy Agbo at the colourful awards ceremony which was concluded in Gaborone, Botswana, yesterday. The event marked the fifth anniversary of the coveted IPA, the brainchild of the African Innovation Foundation (AIF).
The AIF partnered with the Government of Botswana (GoB), represented by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology (MIST) and the Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) to host the IPA 2016 – “Made in Africa.” Dr. Valentin Agon was announced as the overall winner of the first prize of $100,000, with Imogen Wright and Dr. Eddy Agbo – who was awarded the Special Prize for Social impact – winning $25,000 in the second and third places respectively.
Dr. Eddy Agbo, who was one of three Nigerians nominated grabbed the special prize with his Urine Test for Malaria (UMT), a rapid non-blood diagnostic medical device that can diagnose malaria in less than 25 minutes. More often than not, when a fever is detected, anti-malaria medication is administered. However, not all fevers are as a result of malaria. Also, the inability to quickly diagnose and commence malaria treatment can lead to various complications including kidney failure, build-up of lung fluid, aplastic anaemia and even death. UMT detects malaria parasite proteins in the patient’s urine with fever due to malaria. It is simple, affordable and a potential game changer in managing malaria and saving lives across Africa.
Dr. Valentin Agon won the Grand Prize for his innovation “Api-Palu,” an anti-malaria treatment that is achieving commercial success in Benin, Burkina Faso, Tchad, and the Central African Republic (CAR). Api-Palu is made from natural plant extracts and is significantly cheaper than anti-malarial drugs currently in the market. The drug has great inhibitory effects on 3D7 strains of plasmodium falciparum; the causative agent of malaria.
Imogen Wright from South Africa won the second prize for “Exatype”, a software solution that enables healthcare workers to determine the responsiveness of HIV positive patients to antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment. Until now, national responses have focused on access to treatment for all. However, a growing number of people on ARVs are resistant to drug regimens, leading to failure of the therapy, exacerbating the continent’s HIV burden. Exatype processes the highly complex data produced by advanced “next-generation” DNA sequencing of the HIV DNA in a patient’s blood. Through a simple report, it detects drugs that are resistant to the patient, then highlights the need to avoid these to ensure successful treatment.
A 2015 World Bank report details Africa’s battle with malaria and HIV/AIDS diseases by stating that Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 70 percent of all new HIV infections, while malaria kills about 660 000 people each year. This negatively impacts African economies and households and economists believe that malaria is responsible for a growth penalty of up to 1.3 percent in some African countries, hindering economic development in the region.
Therefore, the victories achieved by innovative healthcare solutions at this year’s IPA furnish the notion that Africa is fully committed to eradicating its health limitations. This will further enable the continent to pursue its other visions in advancing agricultural solutions, promoting technological software development and power energy initiatives as showcased by the ingenuity of the remaining seven nominees for the just concluded IPA awards.
According to the expert panel of judges led by Amolo Ng’Weno: “The standards were very high, and it was difficult to make a decision; everyone is a winner and all of them were addressing major social issues. I congratulate the winners and look forward to the next five years of IPA.”
CEO of BIH, Alan Boshwaen also commented that, “All those involved in the advancement of the frontiers of innovation, science, and technology are winners, and on behalf of the Government of Botswana, we would like to congratulate all those who participated in IPA 2016. However, in this pool of achievers, there are those that stand head and shoulders above the rest and we applaud the winners of IPA 2016. We celebrate this fine achievement and trust that it will inspire innovators in Botswana and across the continent to do more to solve Africa’s challenges.”
Jean Claude Bastos de Morais, AIF Founding Board Member, expressed the pride of the organisation over the incredible response that the competition has received thus far, while congratulating the winners and all nominees this year.
