We Owe Society Duty To Safe, Affordable Medicine- Academy of Pharmacy

The president, Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, has said that the academy owes society a duty to help unravel better safer, convenient and more affordable medicines, treatment regimens for diseases that afflict mankind especially those that are endemic to the region.

Speaking in Lagos at the academy’s annual investiture ceremony, the president announced the new Academy’s Research and Innovation Center which is a vehicle created to give enduring impact to research and development in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical space.

He stated that, “It is for this reason that research is central to our operations, one of the major reasons, indeed, that the Academy came to 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, 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.”

As part of the highlights of the event, the president announced that the new center is named after Chief Oludolapo Ibukun Akinkugbe, for onward research activities.

In appreciation, Akinkugbe received an award of excellence as a token of the academy’s appreciation for his enormous strides not only in the pharmacy profession but indeed in all other aspects of human endeavor even as he turns 90 in December.

According to the president, “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.”

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

Prof. Ernest Benson Izevbigie, a distinguished 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.

Prof. 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.