Pharmacists Urged to Embrace Professionalism

Martins Ifijeh
The former Managing Director, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Dr, Christopher Kolade, has called on Nigerian pharmacists to embrace professionalism in the discharge of their noble profession.

Speaking during the 19th Annual National Conference of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) in Lagos, he said pharmacists were among professional groups to bring the country to a better place, and as such, they must live up to their responsibilities.

For him, professionals have a leading place and responsibilities to perform in Nigeria.
“Besides, there are standards to follow and discipline to imbibe. Pharmacists are committed to doing just that,” he added.

The former Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) boss charged pharmacists to see their profession as something to be upgraded from time to time. Professionals, he said, were trying to be apostles of best practices, but the environment was not conducive.
Moreover, those in schools have nothing to emulate.

“So, all practices and responsibilities we are trying to achieve may amount to nothing,” he said. He continued: “We are under a siege”.

Keynote speaker, Mr. Uche Attoh said the pharmaceutical sector was plagued with some challenges. Some of them are slower chronic diseases molecules (drugs), noticeable decline in research and development and pressure on health budget.

Others are faking and adulteration of drugs, low purchasing power and intense competition.
According to him, the world is experiencing “pharmageddon” because between 2002 and 2012 only $1.1trillion was spent on research and development.

He said $1.6 trillion pharmaceutical sector cannot be a joke. He offered some strategies for the sector to thrive. They are: attracting best talents, retaining talents, such as getting stakeholders to support sector and organisational justice system.

Others are e-learning, ethics, which is part of workforce development because cutting corners is not the right direction to go, and competent human resources (HR) needed.