Swiss TPH

The Pharmaceutical Medicine Unit (PMU) is the Contract Research Organization of the Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH-PMU). The Unit is specialized in the conduct of clinical trials on poverty related and tropical diseases in developing or industrialized countries and has been operational in this field since the year 2000.

The clinical testing of new drugs and vaccines underlies strict international guidances. The conduct of clinical trials in low resource countries in adherence with the regulations requires cultural sensitivity, partnership and a thorough understanding of the local circumstances. The Swiss TPH has over 50 years of experience in such research approaches, has an extensive network of contacts to research centres, experts and authorities, and therefore provides a stable basis for the operations of the Unit.

The Swiss TPH-PMU can provide a wide array of services, including e.g. project management, site selection, site assessments, site preparation, study design, protocol development, clinical trial monitoring, trial and site audits. General or study related training is provided by our staff section “Quality Management Services”.

Clinical trial monitoring can either be provided through our staff based in Basel or through a network of over a dozen of associated regional monitors based in Africa or any combination of the two.

The Swiss TPH-PMU is currently mainly involved in studies on new drugs and vaccines against malaria, vaccines against tuberculosis and treatments of sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis). In the future, chronic diseases affecting poor populations will gain the increasing attention of our work. All investigations are carried out in the framework of international consortia and mainly in close collaboration with hospitals and research centres in resource limited countries, but also in Europe for early Phase trials.