United States-based bioinformatics and health informatics specialist, Mr Precious Adeniyi, whose work bridges data science and pharmaceutical practice, has sparked a national debate on precision pharmacy

Speaking at a high-level Continuing Professional Development (CPD) lecture hosted by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Jos recently, Adeniyi challenged Nigerian pharmacists to claim their place at the forefront of global innovation.

The CPD programme organised in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Plateau State chapter, is recognised nationally as a flagship professional development series for pharmacists, attracting participants from multiple states and serving as a platform for shaping national practice standards.

He opined that with the rise of personalised medicine, artificial intelligence, and genomic science, the pharmacist’s role is expanding beyond dispensing medications to becoming an interpreter of data, a precision care navigator, and a frontline health innovator.

In a presentation titled ‘Bridging Bioinformatics, Health Informatics, and AI: Transforming Drug Discovery and Precision Medicine in Pharmacy,’ Adeniyi said pharmacists are not on the sidelines; they are the missing link.

He outlined an original framework for integrating genomic insights, clinical decision support tools, and data analytics into pharmacy practice.
 
Speaking via Google meet, Adeniyi argued that the future of drug discovery will be driven not just by chemistry, but by algorithms, genetic information, and real-time analytics, and that pharmacists must be ready to navigate this terrain.
 
He emphasised that the profession is entering the era of precision pharmacy, where the focus extends beyond drug–drug interactions to drug–gene interactions, tailoring treatment based on a patient’s genetic profile. Artificial intelligence, he noted, is powering this shift, while health informatics tools are making it practical and accessible at the point of care.
 
“The next decade will belong to treatments informed by both science and data — and pharmacists must be trained to speak both languages,” Adeniyi said.
 
Adeniyi emphasised the urgent need for our genomes to be incorporated into global research, noting that Africans have the highest genetic diversity in the world yet remain vastly underrepresented in genomic datasets.

He also compared Nigeria’s position to countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, where pharmacogenomic testing is already being integrated into routine care.
Experts have warned that Africa is already at a disadvantage in the emerging precision medicine landscape, insisting that less than two per cent of global genomic data comes from Africans, meaning that drugs developed with today’s models may not work as effectively for African patients. Without rapid action, he warned, the innovation gap will widen, leaving African patients at a disadvantage.

Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Plateau State chapter, Dr. Lohdip Domjul, also expressed the PSN’s readiness to champion digital transformation in pharmacy practice, calling for greater pharmacist involvement in shaping national policy on precision medicine and AI.

He noted that an urgent need exists for collaboration and policy support.
 Adeniyi and other speakers called for stronger infrastructure, equitable access to genomic testing, and national strategies that position pharmacists at the center of care.