PACoPPDeT — the Pan-Africa Consortium on Pharmaceutical Product Development Training — is a Global Health EDCTP3 training programme. It brings together African and European universities, research organisations and specialist partners to build scientific, analytical and leadership capacity across the pharmaceutical product-development value chain.

The consortium is led by the University of Manchester. The Master's programme is housed at Strathmore University in Kenya, where the degree is awarded, and taught by an international faculty of subject-matter experts.

The Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Product Development (MPPD) is a 24-month postgraduate degree awarded by Strathmore University. It covers the research and development value chain for pharmaceuticals and vaccines, from discovery through pre-clinical and clinical development to regulation and deployment.

The curriculum is designed so that fellows gain a solid overview of holistic R&D while focusing on their own area of interest, and so they can work across research, academic, policy, regulatory and manufacturing settings in Africa's health sector.

Africa's local pharmaceutical manufacturing agenda creates an important opportunity for equitable healthcare, but sustainable production depends on more than manufacturing plants. It also needs scientists who can contribute to discovery, pharmacometrics, bioanalytics, clinical research, regulatory science and scientific leadership.

Even where clinical-trial capacity is relatively strong, protocol development, sample analysis and data analysis often still take place outside the continent. PACoPPDeT was established to close that skills gap through a sustained Master's programme, short courses and experiential learning.

The Master's is designed for mid-career scientists who can apply their learning while they study. Recruitment is intended to draw fellows from the five Africa CDC regions, typically from regulatory agencies, research centres and organisations with a track record in pharmaceutical product development.

Relevant backgrounds include pharmacy, medicine, biomedical sciences, mathematics, engineering and related disciplines.

Through this EDCTP3-supported work, two Master's cohorts of 15 fellows each will be supported, and short certificate courses will be offered to up to 100 scientists so that skills development reaches a wider African scientific community.

The MPPD is a 24-month programme taught across six semesters. Candidates must take and pass the taught and practical modules and the dissertation, and attend at least two-thirds of each course offered. The curriculum totals 82 credit hours.

Delivery is blended. Teaching includes face-to-face lectures and tutorials, online classroom sessions, live tutorials, case studies, seminars, guest lectures, term papers, quizzes and boot-camp workshops. Some sessions are recorded for review.

The model is designed with flexibility for fellows who may be in employment and need leave of absence for travel and immersion-based training. Selected boot camps may be linked to conferences such as the EDCTP Forum and the Africa CDC Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA), or to summer-school courses at European centres of excellence.

Training is organised as a tripod: faculty and fellows, coursework modules, and experiential learning. Faculty are drawn from partner and collaborating institutions and include academics, policy specialists and industry experts.

Once selected, fellows are assigned a mentor. Mentoring continues through the Master's and into alumni networking, so that graduates remain connected across the product-development value chain.

An introductory week covers Statistical Methods and Introduction to R (and related computational preparation). These introductory courses do not carry Master's credit.

The taught programme then follows the pharmaceutical product-development chain, including pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, ethics, biostatistics, pharmacometrics, leadership, drug discovery, pre-clinical studies, research methods, regulatory science, pharmacogenomics, clinical trials, an experiential placement and the dissertation.

Yes. Shorter certificate pathways from the curriculum are intended to reach scientists who are not enrolled on the full Master's, for up to 100 participants. This allows people with a focused interest in a particular stage of product development to take selected modules and receive a certificate.

Yes. Year 2 includes an experiential work placement and dissertation seminars, followed by an independent research project. The dissertation should, in principle, apply pharmaceutical product development in a practical setting.

Fellows are expected to publish dissertation results in a peer-reviewed journal. Placement and project hosts may include consortium partners and collaborating research, regulatory and industry organisations.

Strathmore University programme regulations set out who may be admitted to the MPPD. In summary, applicants should hold:

Strathmore regulations allow students to apply for credit transfer for comparable academic work completed at other accredited institutions. Applications go to the Graduate Studies Office at admission, with transcripts and course outlines. The Board of Graduate Studies considers them and recommends to the Academic Council.

Transfer may be permitted for up to half of the programme's credits, and only where those credits were earned with a grade of B or better.

University regulations require applicants to attend and pass an oral interview and a Graduate Entrance Examination (GEE). A valid Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score may be used instead of the GEE.

The PACoPPDeT fellowship call will confirm how these university requirements sit alongside consortium selection, including regional representation and the mid-career profile of the funded cohorts.

Applications will be submitted through this website once the official admissions call is open. The process is to explore the programme, check eligibility, prepare supporting documents, submit the form, and await selection.

Application dates have not yet been announced. Please use the admissions page for the current process and watch official PACoPPDeT channels for the call.

The Master's is housed at Strathmore University, Kenya, which awards the degree. Teaching is delivered by the international consortium. Experiential placements and dissertation projects may take place with partner and collaborating institutions in Africa and Europe.

Application fees, tuition and fellowship or scholarship terms will be confirmed in the official admissions call. This EDCTP3-supported programme is designed to support two funded Master's cohorts; details of what the fellowship covers will be published with the call.

PACoPPDeT brings together universities, research organisations and specialist partners across Africa and Europe. Teaching, mentoring and placements are shared across the network. The table below lists the institutions currently presented on this site.

Strathmore University awards the Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Product Development. Within Strathmore, the programme sits with the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (SIMS) and the Centre for Research in Therapeutic Sciences (CREATES).

The University of Manchester leads the consortium. Strathmore provides overall scientific leadership of PACoPPDeT, while Manchester oversees financial management of the programme.

The programme start date will be announced with the official admissions call. Please check the admissions page and News & Events for updates.

Use the contact form, email info@pacoppdet.strathmore.edu, or call +254 712 345 678. The programme office is at Strathmore University, Ole Sangale Road, Madaraka Estate, Nairobi, Kenya. Official announcements will also appear on this website.