Pharm. Omatseye, who was the keynote address speaker, spoke on the theme “Innovative Disruption in Pharmacy in Emerging Economies: A Roadmap for Nigeria”. 
She explained that the pharmaceutical industry needs to be more effective and innovative now than ever before. This is due to the fact that other industries around it have embraced innovation and moved with it, incorporating it into their services. Hence, she asked pharmacists to adapt to change. 

Speaking on the change that is needed in the industry, Pharm. Omatseye stated that every innovation and technology advancement coming into the industry should have one thing in common: the ability to disrupt the vicious cycle of poverty in Nigeria and provide affordable healthcare that has both quality and sustainability. 
While speaking, Pharm. Omatseye mentioned different stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry and explained some ways they can employ to bring in innovation and technology into the pharmaceutical industry. 

Speaking on the part that Pharmaceutical Companies can play, she stated that pharmaceutical companies have to stop importing drugs eventually. This can only be done by a partnership between all stakeholders. She explained that local manufacturers should be able to get incentives from the government and even access loans that will not crush their businesses with interest rates.

She also called on pharmaceutical industries to monitor the trend in advanced countries of the world and start looking into 3D printing of drugs. “In the next 10 years, people should be able to print their drugs from their homes”, she stated. Pharmaceutical companies are called on to be ready to move into the future and think beyond the pill. “One of the biggest challenge faced is the adherence to dosage regimen, and in 2015, the FDA approved the 1st drug combined with a digestible sensor, making it possible to monitor the dosage of the patient,” she explained. 

Omatseye urged regulators and the government to look into mass sterilisation of the system as this is the future of getting rid of drug counterfeiting. She also called on them to look into Public-Public-Partnership (PPP), which would encourage interaction between the government and the public in handling the issues of drug counterfeiting and drug abuse.

On the area of finance, Pharm. Omatseye said that Health care Finance needs to be totally disrupted and that luxury taxes were the way to go. She explained that if taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and beverages were increased, money from those taxes could be pumped back into healthcare and could finance the NHIS scheme in a better manner. 

She called on Hospital Pharmacists to look into “Task Shifting”- training others to do some of their roles under supervision so that they can have time to attend to the weightier matters of the practice and improve it. 

She encouraged all community pharmacists to step up and “rethink business”. She stated that every pharmacy should have a website that is mobile responsive and incorporate ‘live chat’ to their tools of practice. She also explained that the community pharmacy needs to be more visible in the community, stressing that ways to do it would be to include chronic disease support, weight management, hypertension management and immunisation to the services rendered by the practice. She also urged that more partnership should be done between pharmacies and Non-Governmental organisations to improve health education, cancer awareness and up the fight against substance abuse. 

Pharm. Clair Omatseye commended the innovation move of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) and Advantage Health Africa, in coming up with CPN Nexus, which she described as disruptive thinking that is most welcomed in the industry. She also commended My Medicines.com as another innovative move to be embraced. 

She commiserated with pharmacists on the fact that getting to innovative E-standards is a journey and not something that can be done in one day. Hence, she urged them to take “baby steps” and learn to see the different ways to be innovative. She encouraged all pharmacists to be bosses that give everybody a voice and a choice, stating that employees need to be heard so that they can introduce ideas that can benefit the business. 

“Get away from analogue and move to digital, keep an eye on pharmaceutical trends, use digital marketing and allow failure to happen,” were a few advice that she left pharmacists with as she ended her speech.

Source: Pharmatimes