HIV Trial Saturation Index

Abstract

In the context of Africa health research verses the investment, does clinical trials in HIV reveal imbalance in scientific research in Africa compared to the United State?

A crossectional study conducted to evaluate 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov through April 2026. With 4,366 interventional trials in the U.S., only 615 such trials were conducted in Africa, pointing inadequacy of investments in such areas. In Africa, the continent's research centres are highly concentrated in a handful of powerful hands, resulting in a high Gini index of 0.711. Egypt and South Africa are responsible for conducting most of the research; With high-risk areas such as parts of West and Central Africa suffering from a dearth of attention.

Despite registering 17.1 times increase in trials in last twenty years, there is global imbalance. Therefore, there is need for global health agencies to bridge this disparity to ensure risk populations benefit from medical advancements