Prof. Moji Adeyeye, the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, has called for deeper and collaborative efforts among researchers, pharmacists and regulatory bodies on herbal medicine.
Adeyeye made the appeal in the University of Ilorin’s Bulletin issued on Monday, where she delivered a paper at the 1st Public Lecture Series of the Nigeria Association of Pharmacists in Academia.
She described the call as part of measures towards advancing the cause of effective transitional research in the country.
She described translational research as “The process of transforming basic and applied research innovations into new drug, diagnostic or medical device products and best practices’’.
She said: “We were raised on herbs; they work. It is a low hanging fruit. So it needs a lot of collaborations among academic pharmacists, scientists, industrial pharmacists and NAFDAC.
“China does 75 per cent of treatments with herbal products.”
She also said that the step was central to the objective of improving public health.
She said that translational research could be challenging and prolonged, but extremely rewarding.
She expressed hope that the outcomes would improve research and development, patent development and heighten research on neglected tropical diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The Director, Central Research Laboratory, University of Ilorin, Prof. Mohammed Yakubu, said it was time to look at traditional Nigerian medicines.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, said that there was “a wide gap between town and gown”.
He therefore called for the need to bridge the gap between academic research and research needs in the country.
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