PSN Foundation to advance research, development

*Holds 90th annual national conference in Umuahia next month as society’s Ben Ukwuoma Memorial Award enters third year
The Pharmaceutical Association of Nigeria (PSN) has officially launched the PSN Foundation and inaugurated its Board of Trustees, on Tuesday, in Abuja.

President PSN, Ahmed Yakasai, at the event said the PSN Foundation will promote research and development, promote education in the expansive field of pharmacy practice in Nigeria, it will also carter for the welfare of pharmacists and Nigerians at large and provide scholarships to deserving pharmacists and their children, and promote national development.

Yakasai said the PSN Foundation will have the mandate to impact on the welfare and well-being of all Nigerians. He said the impact on the general public shall be delivered through well articulated public health campaigns and programmes, fight against fake, substandard and falsified drugs, drug abuse, emergency response (humanitarian assistance), advocacy for childhood and family health diseases, like nutrition, pneumonia and diarrhoea, routine immunisation, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), malaria prevention and treatment, non communicable diseases and maternal and child health.

Yakasai said the Board of Trustees shall be chaired by the former President of PSN, Mohammed Yaro Budah; while Lere Baale (Vice Chairman), Remi Adeseun (Secretary), Ike John Igwu (Treasurer) and Margaret Ebigwelu-Ibru (Public Relations Officer). Other members of the Board of Trustees include Ibrahim Umar Babangida, Clare Omatseye, Joke Bakare, as well as the National Treasurer of PSN and the President of PSN.

Also, Yakasai, at a press conference ahead of the Society’s 90th Annual National Conference schedule to hold Umuahia, Abia State, from November 6 to 11, 2017, said the event is an opportunity to showcase the organizational capacity of the PSN widely perceived as one of the oldest and best organised professional bodies in Nigeria.

The theme of the conference is “Medicines Availability and National Security.”

The PSN President said to enrich the plenary session, Prof. Isa Hussain Marte, of University of Maiduguri and Professor of Cancer Pharmacology will talk on “Nigerian Medicinal Plants: Sources of Anticancer Agents.”

Yakasai said the PSN shall also continue to promote its relationship with the distinguished Fourt Estate of the realm through the Ben Ukwuoma Memorial Award instituted two years ago.