Stalled or scaling? South Africa at a crossroads for health innovation/From Lab to life: South Africa’s women innovators leading the health revolution
Turning breakthrough research into real-world health solutions is a bold and exciting journey — especially in Africa, where innovative diagnostics are steadily overcoming the challenges of moving from lab to clinic. While this critical stage, often called the “valley of death,” has traditionally slowed progress due to infrastructure, funding, and support gaps, new pathways are opening up.
At a recent webinar titled From Lab to Life: Delivering Health Innovation for African Women, hosted by Dr Fezile Khumalo from the University of Cape Town’s GIfT project (Genital Inflammation Test), a panel of women scientists shared not only the challenges, but a growing toolkit of strategies to bridge this gap and deliver lasting impact.
From prototype to WHO submission: What’s possible with the right support
Africa isn’t short on innovation and when the right partnerships come together, local solutions can go global. Dr. Charlotte Maserumule, newly appointed Senior Manager of Biotech Innovation at Market Access Africa, knows this firsthand. While at Mintek, she led efforts to develop an HIV rapid diagnostic test that progressed from concept to submission for World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalification in just two years.
“Getting to WHO submission is a massive milestone for any African institution,” she said, especially considering the clinical trials alone can cost over R6 million, and preparing documentation is a grueling process. But the project proved that with strategic public-private partnerships, African-developed diagnostics can meet the highest global standards.
Her experience also revealed deeper structural issues, particularly the skills gap that still exists between research and industry. “The largest deficit for African innovation is in the skills needed to interface research and industry,” she noted. Building sustainable, Africa-relevant systems that support commercialisation — from skills pipelines to supply chains — will be key to closing this gap and scaling up success.
Mapping the gaps and building bridges
That gap exists not because of a lack of brilliant research, but because the systems that support commercialisation are still maturing. For women’s health in particular, the cost of these delays is high: too many innovations may never reach the people they’re designed to serve. But this is also where change is most urgent and most possible.
“It’s not because we don’t have the science that this valley of death exists,” said Dr. Nonhlanhla Mzila, Chief Scientific Officer at PhiMU Healthcare. “It’s because the commercialisation infrastructure is weak.”
Mzila called for a shift in how we define success in science, valuing not just publications, but translational research that drives real-world outcomes. Aligning academic research more closely with innovation ecosystems, she argued, could unlock broader social and economic value.
A system ready to lead
There are signs of momentum. SAHPRA, South Africa’s regulatory authority, has made commendable progress in strengthening its systems — an essential step toward faster, clearer approval pathways. Yet, challenges remain, particularly for startups navigating the process for the first time. That’s where stronger public-private support systems could help smooth the journey from prototype to product.
South Africa holds immense potential to lead the continent’s health innovation efforts. With stable governance, strong institutions, and regional market access through SADC, the country is well-positioned to become a hub for locally developed, life-saving diagnostics.
Science can’t stay on the shelf
That desire to see innovation reach people, not just papers, echoed across the panel. Dr. Charlene Kimar, R&D Manager at Medical Diagnostech, develops lateral flow tests that could offer affordable, fast diagnoses across the continent. But the road to implementation is steep.
“We wish for our innovation to reach the clinics, not just sit on the shelf but actually serve our people,” said Kimar. For that to happen, an enabling environment that supports local development and manufacturing is essential. But access to raw materials remains a key bottleneck.
“In business, you learn to limit risk. If you can’t guarantee access to raw material supplies for your innovation, your business becomes too risky. Nobody funds risk,” added Khumalo.
A 15-Year journey
No one understands the long game better than Associate Professor Lindi Masson, a biomedical scientist at Australia’s Burnet Institute and co-principal investigator on the GIFT project. The GIFT screening tool — is a simple point-of-care test designed to detect genital inflammation — it has been in development for over 15 years, this work started as a PhD project. Echoing previous speakers’ emphasis on the need of developing academic-industry pipelines for getting ideas from the bench to the bedside.
Masson said successfully creating diagnostic innovations goes further than the science, stakeholder engagement, from medical practitioners to the patients is also just as important.
“The earlier you can start this work and genuinely engage with stakeholders, the better. Communication is key — we all speak slightly different ‘languages’ in our respective fields, so it’s essential to know how to clearly convey what you’re trying to do to the people who’ll ultimately be using these devices,” adds Masson.
Building a pipeline, not just products
Across the board, the panelists agreed: what Africa needs isn’t just more research. It needs a pipeline that moves from discovery to manufacturing to procurement. That means aligning university training with industry needs, funding early-stage development, streamlining regulation, and building local reagent supply chains.
It also means nurturing a new generation of scientists who aren’t just lab-bound but industry-savvy.
“So, what I’m getting is that we also need to change how we offer our university degrees. It can’t just be purely research — we also need to factor in the business skills needed to move innovations forward,” added Khumalo.
Why women, why now
The fact that this entire conversation was led by African women wasn’t incidental, it was intentional, even radical. Female innovators and female reproductive health remain severely underfunded. Globally women receive only a fraction of research and innovation support, both as researchers and end users. It is therefore critical that women like these in this panel can dictate the blueprints of what this change should be.
Said Khumalo: “We need to transform how African science serves African women — not just by ensuring they benefit from the science, but by making sure they’re the ones leading it.”
And it’s not just about health outcomes. Innovation in diagnostics and biotech is also an economic development lever. If South Africa invests now in manufacturing, in regulatory reform and in market access, it could become a continental hub for life-saving, locally made diagnostics.
But as the webinar made clear, none of that happens by accident. It takes funding, political will, and a radical trust in African capacity.
From lab to life
The valley of death isn’t inevitable. But crossing it requires bridges, not only between labs and clinics, but between sectors, skills, research and business as well as changed mindsets.
In closing, Khumalo relayed an audience question about moving beyond diagnostics to treatment for genital inflammation.
“It’s obviously really important not to just detect the inflammation, but to develop strategies to do something about it too,” answered Masson. She highlighted how many researchers, including herself and Professor Jo-Ann Passmore (Co-PI GIFT and UCT professor), are also working on therapeutic solutions.
And in this corner of the world, the people building those solutions are women.
Produced with support from Jive Media Africa, Science Communication partner to the GiFT project.