AMR kills more people in Sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else, yet the continen...
Africa Trials
2
US Trials
123
Gap Ratio
62x
Nations
54
Key Finding
Africa hosted 2 antimicrobial resistance trials versus 123 in the United States, a 62-fold disparity in research investment.
Regional Comparison
Distribution Analysis
Inequality Profile
Temporal & Structural
Why It Matters
AMR kills more people in Sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else, yet the continent has the fewest AMR-specific trials, least surveillance data, and weakest antibiotic stewardship infrastructure.
The Evidence 134 words · target 156
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of antimicrobial resistance trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap? This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov through April 2026. Investigators computed the ARIMA-forecast trend as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation. Africa hosted 2 antimicrobial resistance trials (0.0% of its portfolio) compared to 123 in the United States, yielding a 0.0-fold disparity in per-population investment. Temporal analysis showed 17.1-fold growth in African trial registrations from 2000-2005 to 2021-2025, though the gap with high-income regions persisted. These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa. Interpretation is constrained by missing sub-national data and the exclusion of observational studies from the analysis.
Sentence Structure
Question
In the burden-versus-investment landscape of African health research, does the distribution of antimicrobial resistance trials across African nations reveal a systematic research gap?
Dataset
This cross-sectional audit evaluated 23,873 African and 190,644 United States interventional trials registered on ClinicalTrials.
Method
gov through April 2026.
Primary Result
Investigators computed the ARIMA-forecast trend as the primary estimand using registry metadata for each nation.
Robustness
Africa hosted 2 antimicrobial resistance trials (0.
Interpretation
0% of its portfolio) compared to 123 in the United States, yielding a 0.
Boundary
0-fold disparity in per-population investment.
Extra
Temporal analysis showed 17.
Extra
1-fold growth in African trial registrations from 2000-2005 to 2021-2025, though the gap with high-income regions persisted.
Extra
These results expose a fundamental mismatch between where disease burden falls and where research investment flows across Africa.
Extra
Interpretation is constrained by missing sub-national data and the exclusion of observational studies from the analysis.