Founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN has lamented that the bureaucratic system is constituting an impediment to the production of locally made drugs and vaccines by scientists in the country.
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Babalola noted that the country is blessed with scientists who could come up with drugs and medicine to address the numerous diseases in the country but regretted that the systems over the years had made it impossible for the nation’s medical researchers to level up with their counterparts across the world.
The renowned lawyer who spoke during the opening session of a conference tagged, ‘Drug Discovery Africa 2022’ taking place in ABUAD with the theme, ‘ Evolving Lead Compounds from Nature’, advocated the need for the removal of the bottlenecks in the interest of the citizens.
Babalola who referenced the delay by the National Agency for Food, Drug and Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in approving the drug produced by the university for the treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic, added that hundreds of millions were expended by the institution in bringing equipment from abroad, “even though the law provide that medical equipment are exempted from tax and custom duties.”
According to him, “I pity Nigerians because there are scientists who can match their counterparts all over the world, our drawback is our system and lack of cutting-edge equipment.
“For example, the biomedical research on Virucidine was completed at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and approval had been granted nine months later by NAFDAC. Unfortunately, up till now despite spending millions of naira, the clinical trial is yet to be completed due to system inefficiency.
“This is not different from the experience of the Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, who also complained of the inefficiency of the system in approving her anti-sickle cell herb medication.
“Look at the period of COVID-19, Oxford University came up with vaccine for the pandemic within four months because of the good system for the scientists, but in our country, nothing has been substantially approved after two years.
“I hereby appeal to this body to ensure that this bureaucratic bottleneck is immediately removed to ensure that scientists can translate their research into the product in shortest time possible as done in other climes where within five months they were able to produce drugs and vaccine for COVID-19.”
Babalola while commending the group for choosing the institution in hosting the 2022 conference, said ABUAD had over the years provided medical and education solutions to the country, saying,” our university is a better place to host the conference, especially looking at our contributions over the years in the area of drugs.”
Earlier, the leader of the delegation from Germany, Professor Birgit Strodel, who commended the institution for the host, said the conference was necessary for bringing scientists and researchers together in the continent towards taking advantage of what nature provides in making drugs for society.
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