Fewer than 4% of clinical trials are done in Africa, so Dr. Tariro Makadzange, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University, founded the Africa Clinical Research Network (ACRN) in 2024 to radically increase that number. The organization provides support for researchers and institutions that would like to perform clinical work on the continent, in order to develop a system that centers on African patients and needs. While it is early days still, ACRN has partnered with the Gates Foundation to lead an HIV vaccine trial and begun to build a database of hospitals interested in participating in future trials. In 2025, Makadzange and colleagues put out a call for sites, with more than 500 institutions across the continent replying to sign up.
