Highlights from Pharmacometrics Africa at SCOMRA 2025
Pharmacometrics Africa is proud to have been well-represented at the Scientific Conference on Medical Product Regulation in Africa (SCoMRA) 2025. Many of our capacity building efforts were highlighted by team members and collaborators through presentations that helped showcase progress and our involvement in strengthening the regulatory sciences in Africa. Strengthening Dossier Assessment Competencies to Accelerate Regulatory Harmonisation in Africa Stephanie Leigh (University of Witwatersrand) presented on the PMX Africa-led university-certified programme designed to strengthen clinical dossier assessment competencies across African national regulatory authorities. Her talk highlighted the continent’s capacity gaps and outlined how this 14-week distance-learning course—co-created by regulators, academia and global partners—has already trained more than 140 assessors from 10 countries. By combining competency-based education, case studies, practical evaluations and a Train-the-Trainer model, the initiative is building sustainable regulatory expertise, advancing reliance practices, and accelerating progress toward regulatory harmonisation across Africa. Arlo & Me: The Case for Open Access Regulatory Learning Opportunities At the conference, PMX Africa collaborator Gabriel McClelland (McClelland Creative) presented a compelling look at how ARLO — Access to Regulatory Learning Opportunities — can transform the way regulatory scientists discover and share knowledge. Drawing on platform insights and real-world examples, he highlighted ARLO’s ability to curate global learning resources using filters such as Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) categories, content type, and region, while also addressing the current challenge: the abundance of high-value educational content that remains inaccessible simply because it is not shared. Gabriel urged organisations and individuals to record their expertise, make learning assets accessible,
