The National Research Ethics Board (NREB) is Liberia’s national research ethics body. The NREB was reconstituted in 2014, during the heat of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Outbreak in Liberia. The unprecedented disease outbreak exposed the weakness of the entire health system in providing general health services and ensuring regulatory and ethical standards for clinical research are in place and enforced. A similar observation was true for the sub-region, particularly the three most affected countries: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Due to the limitation of vibrant and credible clinical research structures in the sub-region, the national response systems of the three countries faced an uphill challenge to adequately protect the health and welfare of citizens regarding their involvement in clinical trials. To date, the limitation of a vibrant body to conduct, promote, and advocate for scientifically and ethically robust review, approval, monitoring, and regulatory mechanisms for clinical trials demands urgent attention.
As part of the response to the Ebola Outbreak in Liberia, the Ministry of Health (MoH) supported the establishment of a National Research Ethics Board with the sole intent of protecting the rights and welfare of research participants while ensuring the quality of the research and respecting the researchers’ purpose to generate and share scientific knowledge. Since its establishment, the NREB has been committed to upholding the cardinal research ethics principles of autonomy, beneficence, and justice in reviewing studies under the laws of Liberia.