Experts in the field of pharmacy have said research is very crucial for effective pharmacy regulation in the country.
They stated this during the Pharmacy Scholars Initiative (PSI) 6th-anniversary webinar, themed 'The Role of Research in Pharmacy Regulation'.
The Registrar of Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), Pharm. Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, said research plays a crucial role in the formulation, modification and implementation of regulations across various industries and sectors.
He said the deployment of research in regulation also ensures the development of effective and evidence-based regulatory framework, identifying and understanding potential risks associated with certain activities, products, or processes and that it provides empirical evidence for policy-making, and utilised by regulatory agencies to set standards and guidelines.
He said it also helps regulatory agencies to keep abreast of new developments, emerging technologies, and potential hazards that may arise in the course of various operations, among others.
The registrar said PCN is aware of the huge potential and opportunities that research has in the country's regulatory processes and is very committed to exploring them.
"PCN is open to research partnerships, especially studies with grants. PCN is committed to strengthening Pharmacy regulation through Research," he said.
He said some research activities in PCN are proposals from universities, application to the National Health Research Ethics Committee to establish an Institutional Review Board, repositioning of Patent Propriety Medicine Vendors regulation by the PCN, joint research between PCN and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research (NIPRD) on "Attitude of Foreign Trained Pharmacy Graduates Towards Specialization and Pharmacy Practice in Nigeria", to mention a few.
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The guest speaker, Associate Professor Kehinde O. Obamiro, of James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, said the application of social media in research has many benefits, adding that it is still evolving and users need to be mindful of privacy, legislation and sampling among others.
The Chairman of the webinar conference and grand patron of PSI, Professor Ahmed Tijjani Mora, commended PSI for holding the 6th webinar in its series of annual physical/virtual conferences.
He said the theme of the 6th webinar is yet another topical one to explore hitherto one area that has not been paid enough attention by pharmacists and/or pharmaceutical scientists.
He said the conferences by PSI are educative as they are informative, especially when viewed from the novelty of their topics all these past six years.
The President of PSI, Dr. Ibrahim Jatau Abubakar, said PSI is a not-for-profit research mentoring forum which started in December 2017.
Abubakar, who is of the Department of Health, Tasmania, Australia and also the founder of the forum, said the PSI is involved in mentoring upcoming scholars on research and career development, through collaborative research, conferences presentations, hands-on training webinars, daily engagements on WhatsApp, research engagements in the community and career guidance.
