A South African-built AI tool that speeds up clinical trials just placed second in the world

Before a new medicine can be tested in people, researchers must build the digital databases that will hold the trial's data — slow, error-prone work that delays everything after it. Johannesburg company BioInformatiCo built Leova, an AI platform that automates much of that building and testing, and it has just placed second in the 2026 CDISC AI Innovation Challenge, a global competition. 'It shows that technology developed in Africa can help tackle challenges in clinical research worldwide,' said founder and CEO Shirley Collie. BioInformatiCo's tools already support vaccine trials for HIV, TB, Ebola and COVID-19, from first-in-human studies to Phase 3.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation