…As Eko 2022 kicks off Tuesday June 14
As the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) looks forward to hold its Annual National Conference tagged Eko 2022, the National Chairman of the association, Pharm. Ken Onuegbu, has said discussion on vaccine production and intervention will be given priority.
Pharm. Onuegbu said this on Friday at a press briefing preceding the 25th National Annual Conference of the association, held in Lagos; saying the conference was scheduled to proffer workable solutions to the challenges facing the industrial sub -sector of the nation’s pharmaceutical industry.
According to Onuegbu, the conference will hold at Providence Hotel, 12a, Oba Akinjobi Way, Ikeja, Lagos from Tuesday 14 June to Thursday 16 June, 2022 and the theme of the conference is “The Roles Of Industrial Pharmacists In A Depressed Economy: Opportunities, Challenges And Solutions In Providing Essential Drugs”. The Keynote Speaker for the conference is the Chairman/CEO, Juhel Pharma Nig. Ltd., Pharm.(Dr) Ifeanyi Okoye.
He noted that there will be a welcome cocktail in the evening of Tuesday 14 June, 2022.
According to the National Chairman, the theme of the conference was chosen because of the importance of medicine and job security in every country in which Nigeria can never be an exception. He said “Nigeria faced a lot of challenges when COVID-19 pandemic broke out, but in the midst of these challenges, what is supposed to be the roles of pharmacists in ensuring medicine security in the country? One of our top entrepreneurs, Dr Okoye will do justice to the topic during the opening ceremony”.
The main conference, which is scheduled for Wednesday 15 June is expected to be chaired by the Past president of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), who is also the Chairman, Evans Baroque Pharma Ltd., Pharm. Ahmed I. Yakassai.
Other sub-theme for the conference, are “Professional Collaboration and Coordination as a Panacea to Industrial Growth”; Technology Regulation and Data Centricity in Strengthening Local Capacity as Pharma Industries Evolve, Napa-Naip Example”, and “The Role Of Pharmacists in Vaccine Interventions”.
Pharm. Onuegbu also explained that the speaker for the plenary sessions are VC Nnamdi Azikwe University, Anambra, Prof. Okey Esimone; MD, Impact Pharmaceutical Ltd., Pharm. Jasper Onyeka and the Chairman/CEO, Anchor Healthcare Ltd., Pharm. Steve Onya. The CEO Neitherland Business School, Lagos, Professor Lere Baale is expected to be the lead discussion.
There will be another interesting plenary session, said Onuegbu, where NAFDAC, CBN, Custom as well as NDLEA, among other stakeholders will have a round table discussion. And in the evening of that same Thursday, there will be closing dinner.
“It’s going to be three days of interesting events. Vaccine production and intervention will also receive good attention, because we have identified big gap in that area. One of our erudite resource person, will do justice to the subject. The PSN President, Professor Cyril Usifoh is the chief host of the event”, Pharm. Onuegbu said.
Corroborating the National Chairman’s remark, the Chairman of the conference organising committee, Pharm. Bankole Ezebuilo, said the event promises to be exciting, pointing that measures have been put in place to ensure that the event meets the various reasons people attend conference, which according to him, could be for relaxation, for connection, for knowledge acquisition among others.
“We are going to have social night which is meant for relaxation. We don’t want the conference to be too boring with academic papers, so we have lined up interludes and different plenaries to spice up the event. We have put things in place to cater for reasons people may want to attend the conference and I am sure anybody that attend the event for one reason or the other will be happy that his reason for attending is met”, Ezebuilo said.
He expressed optimism that the outcome of the event will cause a positive change in the industry, saying measures have been put in place to ensure that working paper for a favorable policy that will benefit the industry will be generated from the conference.
