A founding member of the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA), Dr Echeazu Ogu, has said that the association needs to balance its intellectual and business aspects, in order to make better progress.
Speaking with Pharmanewsonline at the just concluded 17th Annual Scientific Conference and Exposition of the association, held in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Dr Ogu, who is currently an Independent Consultant and President of BonScience, Incorporated, also added that the missing link in NAPPSA remains the issue of governance.
“I think that the governance of NAPPSA has never really been well addressed and then, the issue of intellectual and academic pursuit of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences versus the business aspects of pharmacy needs to be balanced. At the present time, it seems to me that there is more emphasis on the business aspects at the expense of the intellectual and academic aspect of pharmacy and pharmaceutical science,” he observed.
Ogu also stressed the need for a re-evaluation of the recently conceptualised NAPPSA 10-year Strategic Plan. According to him, this becomes expedient because of the vicissitudes of time and events, which are capable of altering the original aspirations of the association.
“Another point is the 10-year strategic plan – a beautiful concept – but my experience, in over four decades, shows that there is no review mechanism in the NAPPSA strategic plan. There should be an annual review of that 10-year strategic plan to ensure that some of the assumptions that were made at the beginning are still relevant and consistent in line with the actions we are taking now,” he enthused.
While lauding the out-going NAPPSA President, Dr Teresa Pounds, for her outstanding performance, especially in making NAPPSA more united, Ogu urged the in-coming President, Pharm. Emmanuel E-doggy Ezirim, to champion the balance between the association’s intellectual and business aspects towards positioning it as a credible scientific organisation.
He said: “I think Dr Teresa Pounds made great progress in moving NAPPSA forward. She also united NAPPSA. Overall, I will grade Teresa Pounds’ performance as an A, even though I hardly give anyone an A as a college professor.
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