Academy of Pharmacy wants safe, affordable medicines

The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAP) has insisted on the production of quality, safer and more affordable medicines for treatment regimens of diseases that afflict mankind, especially those that are endemic to African region.

According to President, NAP, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, it is the duty of the academy to help the society unravel adequate and effective medicines that would prevent and eradicate diseases in the region.

Adelusi-Adeluyi stated this during the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Chief Oludolapo Ibukun Akinkugbe for his huge contribution to the growth of pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria as Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma bagged an Honorary Fellowship of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy.

He noted that the bestowal of the award on Akinkugbe was a token of the academy’s appreciation for his enormous strides, not only in the pharmacy profession, but also in all other aspects of human endeavor, while Danjuma’s investiture was for his passion and support for the pharmacy profession and the most generous benefactor of scientific research.

Meanwhile, the high point of the ceremony was the announcement of the Academy’s Research and Innovation Center, named after Akinkugbe, which according to the academy, is a vehicle 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, that the academy came into being.

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, 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,” he added.

Receiving the award, Danjuma who is also the Chairman of May and Baker Nigeria Plc, donated N10 million to the research and innovation centre to support the advancement of research and development in the country.

In his keynote lecture titled: “From Plant to Patient: Driving Research and Innovation for Industry,” Prof. Ernest Benson Izevbigie, a distinguished scientist and former Vice Chancellor, Benson Idahosa University, 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 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.