Tag: Stories

Nigeria Chapter Members Selected for High-Impact Learning Opportunities in Pharmacometrics and Clinical Pharmacology

12 May 2025

The Nigeria Chapter of Pharmacometrics is pleased to highlight a significant step forward in the development of our local pharmacometrics capacity. Two of our members—Jacinta Nwogu-Attah and Babatunde Adeagbo—are embarking on enriching professional development journeys that promise to strengthen our collective expertise and impact. Advancing Skills Through Global Exposure Jacinta Nwogu-Attah has been selected as one of three inaugural fellows for the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF)-Genentech/Roche Research Development Fellowship. This opportunity will allow her to join the Clinical Pharmacology team at the cutting-edge Genentech laboratory in San Francisco, California. During her time at Genentech, Jacinta will work on a range of advanced pharmacometrics modelling projects, spanning pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD), and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling. This is more than an international experience; it is a focused opportunity to acquire technical skills that will directly contribute to strengthening research and application capacity within our Nigerian pharmacometrics community. Jacinta has expressed her commitment to leveraging this opportunity to support knowledge transfer and collaborative projects upon her return—an inspiring example of how global exposure can serve local development. Growing Capacity Through Professional Engagement In a similar spirit of growth, Babatunde Adeagbo has been awarded the Low and Middle-Income Country (LMIC) Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT). This award supports including researchers from underrepresented regions in global pharmacology dialogues, offering Babatunde access to training, mentorship, and scientific exchange at the highest levels. His participation will provide valuable insights into international trends in clinical pharmacology while reinforcing approaches

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Reflections on the 2025 Florida Winter School: Shaping the future of PBPK scientists in Model Informed Drug Development (MIDD)

27 February 2025

Starting a PhD journey is filled with mixed feelings of excitement and uncertainties for most people. More often than acknowledged, the uncertainty curve gets twisted frequently, and this is very apparent in the conceptualization stage of the journey (first year). One thing that tends to relieve the anxiety and pressure is getting to interact with fellow scholars and academics wrestling with difficult concepts during the PhD journey…

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A dive into pharmacokinetics modelling of drugs in global health research: Dr. Karen Yeo presents a case study on Moxidectin

31 October 2024

My name is Joshua Kiptoo, a member of the Uganda chapter of Pharmacometrics Africa and a practicing clinical pharmacist in Uganda.  Like many other life concepts, I have appreciated that “how” one communicates a scientific concept is as (if not more) important as “what” one intends to communicate. To me, unraveling the ‘how‘ when communicating the concept of “modeling” is critical in understanding the growing popularity of pharmacokinetic modeling in the past decades. Not only is the phrase “Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling” a mouthful of words to fit in one breath, but also a concept that sounds complex at the first hearing. Thinking about how people facilitate understanding of perceived ‘complex’ subjects like PBPK modeling, the idea that rang ‘closest to home’ was the use of human mannequins in our clothes shopping stores. In Uganda, tailoring is still a big business and most of us will have our clothes designed and tailor-made for ‘that’ special occasion. To best select tailor-made clothes that best fits an individual’s preference, a vendor may require a mannequin as an additional investment in the business. You can only better appreciate your potential clothes when hung on an appropriate mannequin (‘model’) with the right shape, size, and design (‘dosage regimen’) that is most likely to meet your individual needs. Quite often, we look at the chest and shoulders designs, the waist size, and overall height of the clothing on display. Such is the concept of modeling, and a model that better suits the needs of

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Reflections on the APT Program: My Journey

23 September 2024

The Applied Pharmacometrics Africa Training (APT) fellowship was a turning point in my career, providing a foundation that has shaped my trajectory as a researcher in the field of pharmacometrics. It was a transformative experience. As one of the first cohort of the APT fellows, I had the opportunity to dive into real-world applications of pharmacometrics, working alongside Dr Veshni Pillay-Fuentes Lorente of Stellenbosch University, South Africa to explore the differing cure rates of Trichuriasis using albendazole-ivermectin co-medication in Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire. Our work was eventually published in Drugs in R&D by SpringerNature (https://rdcu.be/dOC3l). The training I received during the APT fellowship was instrumental in preparing me for the prestigious Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF)-Genentech/Roche Research Development Fellowship. The APT fellowship has not only equipped me with new knowledge but has also positioned me to mentor upcoming researchers in pharmacometrics. This journey has been pivotal in reinforcing my commitment to strengthening pharmacometrics research capacity in Africa. In addition to my research, the APT fellowship inspired me to propose a pharmacometrics course for the fifth year pharmacy students at my institution. I believe that by integrating pharmacometrics early into the curriculum, we can foster a new generation of scientists capable of contributing to global healthcare. While we await the approval of the course, I remain hopeful that this initiative will help bridge the gap in pharmacometrics training in Africa, and further building the continent’s capacity for high impact research in clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics. The fellowship left me with a long

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My Journey into the World of Pharmacometrics – A Blessing in Disguise

23 September 2024

Life has an uncanny way of leading us to paths we never knew we were meant to walk. My story, especially in the field of pharmacometrics, is one of such fortuitous discoveries—a blessing in disguise. It all began during my early days as a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. The transition into academia was already overwhelming, leaving me little time or energy to inquire about the activities happening around me. One day, I noticed a group of individuals gathered for a workshop in one of the seminar rooms. It didn’t pique my curiosity at the time—until a chance encounter shifted everything. A participant from the workshop, who was a Clinical Pharmacy lecturer from another institution, came to say a friendly “hello” to my department. It was from him that I first heard the term “pharmacometrics.” Little did I know that this chance meeting would become a defining moment in my career. The workshop, as I later found out, was the 2019 ‘Workshop on Introduction to pop PK using Monolix’ 2019 organized by Pharmacometrics Africa in collaboration with the Translational Pharmacokinetics Research Group (TPRG) at my institution. Although I hadn’t officially registered for the event, this newfound colleague was determined to introduce me to the world of pharmacometrics. His enthusiasm was infectious, and by the final day, I found myself attending the general meeting. That was the beginning. Fast forward to 2020, I was more settled in my new academic role and eager to pursue a

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