Abuja, Nigeria (CU)_ Dr. Obi Adigwe, Director-General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) based in Nigeria, has announced the institute’s new focus on science, technology, innovation, and local and international collaboration. The head of the NIPRD said the agency is now concentrating on health equity in Nigeria through R&D for local drug manufacture and pharmaceutical security, emphasizing that tropical diseases like malaria continue to be key healthcare concerns in the country.
Dr. Adigwe, speaking at the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria’s (NAIP) 24th Annual National Conference, stated that non-contagious and emerging diseases such as Ebola and COVID-19 were progressively spreading in Nigeria and several other African nations, requiring research to prevent them. He stated that the country’s pharmaceutical research field has produced three COVID-19 products, with a minimum of ten other products expecting industry boost.
Dr. Adigwe attributed the innovation to the massive investment being made at NIPRD to enhance Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning projects in Drug Discovery and Phytomedicinal Development. He claims that the mediation will boost relevant outcomes while preserving scarce resources in our R&D environment. Adigwe claimed that the recent infrastructure investments in Bioavailability and Bioequivalence were made with the hopes of producing high-quality Nigerian products and dominating the continent soon after the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is fully implemented.
Dr. Adigwe urged pharmaceutical industry professionals to collaborate with NIPRD’s Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and Excipients’ Value Chain Production Project. In the meantime, Dr. Adigwe and Prof. Martins Emeje, the NIPRD’s Head of Research and Development, received accolades for managing a new organization that uses the latest technologies to manufacture new products.
