Pharmacometrics Africa: Nigeria Chapter

Babatunde Ayodeji Adeagbo is a senior lecturer and a tenured staff member of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy of Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He graduated with Distinction as a Pharmacist in 2001, as one of the best in the class. He holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry with a research focus on integrating pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics, and pharmacometrics in solving clinical problems in chronic disease and vulnerable populations. His PhD resulted in the first documentation of a population pharmacokinetic study in Chronic myeloid leukaemia in Nigeria and perhaps in Africa. He is presently leading the Translational Pharmacokinetic Research Group, Obafemi Awolowo University, and the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring team of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His research interests include the use of pharmacogenetics and pharmacometrics tools to identify biomarkers that could help monitor the clinical outcome of drugs in chronic non-communicable diseases like cancer to optimise their use in special populations, and over the years, he has gained expertise in the use of basic modelling and simulations for the prediction of dosage and adverse reactions with a special focus on the use of antimalarial, anti-infectious and anti-cancer drugs in vulnerable groups like neonates, children, pregnant women and comorbid conditions to optimize therapy in these groups. He has a keen interest in the evaluation of specially designed drug and vaccine formulations for communicable and non-communicable diseases. He has published over 28 journal articles in high-impact journals and three others under review. He has presented his research findings at several international conferences and enjoyed several supports for capacity development in pharmacometrics and clinical trial management for young African Scientists. In the last five years, He won six different fellowships/grants listed as follows: (a) Clinical Research Development Fellowship by UNICEF/UNDP/WORLD BANK/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (b) WHO–TDR Re-integration Grant, worth $25,000.00; (c) European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership Career Development Fellowship, worth Euro 149,999.43, (d) Two National Research Fund from tertiary education trust fund (TETFUND) Nigeria worth about 80 million Naira (e) iProtecta SCD (sub-grant $160,000.00 from African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology, Harare, Zimbabwe (AibST). He is the Secretary of the Consortium of Genomics and Therapeutics in Africa, a group interested in the implementation of pharmacogenetics in clinical practice.

Ochuko is a lecturer at the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Her research interest is optimising medication use in special populations such as paediatrics, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and in patients with chronic diseases using pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics and pharmacometrics research tools. She obtained her B.Pharm. degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, her M.Sc. degree in Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and she recently completed her M.Phil. programme in Pharmacology at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Her M.Phil. thesis focused on population pharmacokinetics of Amodiaquine in the Nigerian population. She is currently a PhD scholar with the Translational Pharmacokinetics Research Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria where she is exploring pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics, and pharmacometrics to optimise therapeutic management of sickle cell disease. Ochuko is a fellow of the 2023 cohort of the Applied Pharmacometrics Training (APT) Programme organised by Pharmacometrics Africa in collaboration with Certara where she gained hands-on experience in modelling and simulation, and she completed a real-world data-based project on ‘Pharmacometric Analysis to describe the Pharmacokinetics and Exposure-Efficacy Response of Ivermectin in Adolescents infected with Trichuris Trichiura’ working with her APT project partner. She is also a fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists.