Experts say affordable medicine, research drive healthcare business
Stakeholders in the business of health and pharmaceuticals say harnessing capacity in the affordability of medicines and support for scientific research development will fast track growth in Nigeria’s health sector.
At the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, experts made passionate case for better, safer, more convenient and more affordable medicines and treatment regimens for diseases that afflict mankind, especially those that are endemic to our region of the world at its annual investiture ceremony in Lagos.
“The Academy of Pharmacy owes society a duty to help unravel better, safer, more convenient and more affordable medicines and treatment regimens for diseases that afflict mankind, especially those that are endemic to our region of the world,” Adelusi-Adeluyi, president, Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy said.
Adeluyi said, the high point of this year’s ceremony was the announcement of the Academy’s Research and Innovation Centre which is named after Oludolapo Akinkugbe.
“This is a vehicle we created to give enduring impact to research and development in Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical space. It is for this reason that research is central to our operations, one of the major reasons, indeed, that the Academy came to being,” Adeluyi said.
According to him, we want to complement local and international efforts that support scientific research and research activities.
“Much of the work we have done in this regard has been in the area of advocacy, in engaging government and policy makers on the essence of scientific research and why it is critical to provide better funding and other moral support to scientific research focused institutions as well as individual researchers,” Adeluyi said.
The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy is a specialised academy that among others, seeks to promote scientific research and professional development especially in the health, pharmaceutical and related sectors in order to help overcome challenges posed by pain and disease as well as fast-track social and economic development in Nigeria and beyond.
However, Adeluyi noted that the “bestowal of the award on Oludolapo Ibukun Akinkugbe is a token of our appreciation of his enormous strides not only in the Pharmacy profession but indeed in all other aspects of human endeavour.”
“As he turns 90 in December, it is only fitting and proper that his number one constituency, pharmacy, kicks off the celebration of an illustrious role model whose legacy of love, sacrifice and service would be forever etched in our hearts and minds.”
“It is in the same vein that we induct General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma’s investiture as only the second ever Honorary Fellow of the Academy. He remains one of the most passionate supporters of the Pharmacy profession and a most generous benefactor of scientific research,” he added.
Ernest Benson Izevbigie, a scientist and former vice chancellor, Benson Idahosa University, in his keynote lecture at the event titled, From Plant to Patient: Driving Research and Innovation for Industry called for the translation of research findings into societal values.
Izevbigie whose ground-breaking work on the use of bitter leaf, Vernonia Amygdalina in cancer and diabetes management has commanded critical acclaim globally provided critical research insights into how he has used bitter leaf in the management of breast cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer with results better than western drugs.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH