Hosted by the Department of Parasitology on the FMUI campus in central Jakarta, the Universities of Indonesia and Oxford Clinical Research Laboratory (IOCRL) provides an integrated medium for broader engagement with all of our Indonesian friends and partners in training, education, public engagement, and development of a broader collaborative clinical research agenda in the coming years. The IOCRL facility will be managing three active clinical trials in the coming year:
- ACT-HIV, assessment of adjunctive dexamethasone therapy for TB meningitis in HIV-infected patients at Cipto Mangungkusomo and Persehabatan Hospitals in Jakarta (Wellcome);
- INSPECTOR pivotal clinical trial of tafenoquine combined with an artemisinin combination therapy for radical cure of vivax malaria in Indonesian soldiers in East Java (GSK UK, Medicines for Malaria Venture, Geneva, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation);
- a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of live Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite vaccines for prevention of acute P. falciparum and acute and latent Plasmodium vivax malaria in Indonesian soldiers (US Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program & Sanaria Inc., USA).
FMUI faculty members serve as the Principal Investigators of each of these endeavours, along FMUI, EIMB (including EOCRU), Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Viet Nam (OUCRU), and Armed Forces of Indonesia co-investigators and technical staff.
The IOCRL facility, managed by Dr Raph Hamers of Oxford University (Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health), serves as the administrative, regulatory, and technical hub for these complex and ambitious trials. This remarkably productive engagement of Oxford University with EIMB and FMUI approaches its tenth year with a sense of deep gratitude to these hosts for their warm Indonesian hospitality, collegiality, friendship, and professionalism.