Africa only develops 2 % of new drugs globally —DG NIMR

Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos, Professor Babatunde Salako said only two percent of the 1500 new drugs developed globally yearly comes from developing countries, urging Africa to develop its own drugs.

Professor Salako gave the call in his lecture entitled “Challenges and Success Stories of Biomedical Research In Africa” at the closing ceremony of the sixth Unibadan Conference of Biomedical Research in Ibadan.

He said reversing this will require a change in orientation of professionals to start doing research that will impact people.

Professor Salako said 90 per cent of the global burden of diseases exists in Africa, even though the continent contributes only 10 per cent of the world’s health research finding.

The don, noting that Africa had become a continent with many conflicts such as wars and epidemics, said Nigeria’s poor health index, low life expectancy and low medical personnel to patient ratio and deaths from a non-communicable disease like malaria can only be solved through research.

Professor Salako said that Nigeria has its health research agenda, urging researchers to prioritise these agenda to ensure they better impact Nigeria’s health problems.

• Security fears force Ekiti Assembly to adjourn till October

He declared: “High-income countries investigators secure most of the funding for global research projects. If their values and objectives are different, it will not impact as they should. So, the orientation must change; we need to conduct interventional research that will bring solution and impact policy.”

Actualising this, he, however, said will require increased funding for health and health budget, Nigeria prioritising research, increased private sector participation in research, and researchers imbibing research integrity as well as a review of the curriculum at all levels of education.

Professor Salako added, “good research is one that can influence human conditions, actionable, information timely, beneficial. So, we must find an African solution to our problem. If we don’t, we cannot make progress.

“Some successes have been made, but we still have some challenges when we talk about research in Africa and Nigeria. We need to surmount the challenges and build on the successes that we have had.”