Charles Balogun

As we commemorate the 22nd African Traditional Medicine Day celebration, we admonish policymakers, stakeholders, and citizens to be reminded of the immense contributions to healthcare access and socioeconomic development that can result from harnessing the vast ethnomedicinal plant body and rich biodiversity of the African continent. For close to four decades, @NIPRD2 has demonstrated robust capacity in the development and commercialization of phytomedicines, pharmaceutical raw materials, drugs, and biological products from Nigeria’s indigenous natural resources. NIPRD emerged as the first institute of its kind to achieve both the ISO 17025 and ISO 9001 certifications and has leveraged this expertise to collaborate with international partners in many groundbreaking areas. The Institute recently received a 200m JPY grant to set up the Nanotechnology Centre for the enablement of phytomedicine development. Harnessing statutory roles and well-established ties, NIPRD maximizes its convening power to engage stakeholders in healthcare, pharma manufacturing, academia, industry, and across multidisciplinary sectors. This approach imbues widespread intervention ownership and also guarantees sustainability. Learning from the last pandemic, the Institute assembled a multidisciplinary team of Professors and Vice-Chancellors to form Nigeria’s first National Scientific Advisory Committee (NSAC). The body developed a reference document for the verification and validation of locally-produced phytomedicines to ensure that citizens’ safety was paramount in the articulation of control measures for the pandemic. This document was distributed widely and has become the cornerstone for evidence-based analysis in the sector. NIPRD has considerable experience in ensuring that interventions led by the Institute are relevant to the whole of Africa. The Institute provided the world’s first categorical report on the Madagascar Covid-Organics preparation, and given the impact of the findings on lives and resources, now routinely collaborates with countries in every region of the continent. Under this administration, we have now focused on the conceptualization and implementation of our world-class Contextual Processing Protocol (CPP). This revolutionary innovation focuses on the harnessing of safe and efficacious phytomedicines towards Universal Health Coverage (UCH) while catalyzing critical socioeconomic indices related to employment generation, capacity building, and revenue generation. Cleverly embedded in the CPP are proprietary initiatives that align with the @NigeriaGov Presidential Initiative to Unlock Healthcare’s Value Chain (PVAC). Leveraging our relationships with partners across Africa, alongside thousands of practitioners we have already trained, we believe that the activation of appropriate regulatory mechanisms can spark widespread development within pan-African partnerships catalyzed by the AfCFTA. Similar to our blockbuster sickle cell phytomedicine, NICLOVIX™, we now have about 50 more game-changing products under development for both infectious and non-communicable diseases. In line with our mandate and pro-collaboration ethos, we hereby commit to continuing to provide leadership and to prioritize engagement with like-minded entities in the promotion of phytomedicinal development throughout the @WHOAFRO region #MedicinesSecurity #2024ATMDay @muhammadpate @DrTunjiAlausa @Pharmanewsltd @aproko_doctor @UNICEFAfrica @WHONigeria @AfricaHealthBiz @Ecowas_cdc @AlikoDangote @Reuters @AFD_en @CNN @BBCWorld @itsLaycon @adekunleGOLD @BUAgroup @AfCFTA @ECA_OFFICIAL @MeneWamkele @segunawo @claverGatete