The globalization of clinical research business is leading to a shift of clinical trials from Western countries to so-called emerging markets. This article should present the temporal development of clinical research business on the African continent. Further information should be gathered on favorite disease categories in which clinical trials are conducted. Using the ClinicalTrials.gov registry, trend data on the development of clinical research in the 47 countries listed on the African continent country list published by the World Health Organization were collected for the period from 2000 to 2018. Additionally, health data for the two main disease categories Communicable Diseases and Non-Communicable Diseases are taken from the Atlas on African Health Statistics of the World Health Organization for each country to be utilized in comparative analyses. Twenty African countries showed a strong development in clinical research business with continuous clinical trials conducted since 2000, while 5 countries had a delayed beginning of development. A further 19 countries show only sporadic performance. A comparison of the data for the disease categories Communicable Diseases and Non-Communicable Diseases shows that in 38 countries the number of clinical trials in the field of Communicable Diseases has decreased over the course of the reporting period, while clinical trials in the category of Non-Communicable Diseases are increasingly being conducted. The expected globalization trend is not evident in all African emerging markets. Due to various factors, the countries show different levels of development in the clinical research business.
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