World Drug Delivery and Formulation Summit

Biography:

Abstract:

Healthcare in Ghana is generally near the top of Sub-Saharan African rankings, but bottlenecks in delivery remain, along with certain gaps in policy and practice. Overcoming these challenges will involve policy-makers thinking out-of-the-box to create a space for the numerous micro-entrepreneurs who are the backbone of Ghana’s herbal medicine practice to thrive. This is an opportunity to support national equitable healthcare delivery goals as well as national economic development goals.  The continued advancement of herbal medicine practice promises significant opportunities for job creation across the herbal medicine value chain. Moreover, beyond their use at home, there are also significant opportunities to commercialize herbal medicine products in global markets.  Perhaps it is time to put herbal medicine on a more industrial footing. We at Pokupharma Company Limited are far advance to add to our wide range of drugs.  Antiretroviral herbal drugs to augment foreign imports.In my submission, I write on alternative system of medicines, the practice it faces in Ghana with reference to Antiretroviral herbal medicine.The human immunodeficiency virus has infected millions of people and the epidemic continues to grow rapidly in some parts of the Africa. Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy has provided improved treatment and prolonged the life expectancy of patients. Moreover, there is growing interest in using ARVs to protect against new infections. Hence, ARVs have emerged as our primary strategy in combating the virus. Unfortunately, several challenges limit the optimal performance of these drugs. First, ARVs often require life-long use and complex dosing regimens. This results in low patient adherence and periods of lapsed treatment manifesting in drug resistance. This has prompted the development of alternate dosage forms such as vaginal rings and long-acting injectables that stand to improve patient adherence. Another problem central to therapeutic failure is the inadequate penetration of drugs into infected tissues. This can lead to incomplete treatment, development of resistance, and viral rebound. Several strategies have been developed to improve drug penetration into these drug-free sanctuaries. These include encapsulation of drugs in nanoparticles, use of pharmacokinetic enhancers, and cell-based drug delivery platforms. In this review, we discuss issues surrounding ARV therapy and their impact on drug efficacy. We also describe various drug delivery–based approaches developed to overcome these issues. Ghanaian herbal medicine and health care practice systems are not well documented and characterized in writing. Herbal medicine practitioners are mainly illiterate and practice in the general community or in secret shrines which are mostly in rural areas. The mutual suspicion between herbal medicine practitioners on one hand, and allopathic medicine practitioners, academics and the educated elite on the other hand, is still rather strong. Herbal secrecy and the absence of effective specific protection of intellectual property rights are barriers to making knowledge easily available by the practitioners.  However, there are indications that some of the healers are prepared to divulge some the secrets. Lack of adequate financial support throughout the system limits rapid progress in developing herbal medicine. The systems for legal control and management of herbal medicine in Ghana are still weak. There is no legal or administrative instrument to control complementary medicine practice in this country. Although there is a growing interest in phyto-medicine research, there is no known organization or individuals in Ghana that conduct scientific research into the esotertic component of herbal medicine and the other healing modalities. Efficacy tests have not been done on virtually all of the herbal and complementary medicine products on the commercial market. There are no formal schools in Ghana for herbal medicine and any of the types of complementary medicine. Modalities for establishing useful working relationship between allopathic and herbal and other medicine practitioners are yet to be clearly defined. There is no national standard research protocol and no national ethical committee on TM. Poor agricultural practices, indiscriminate bush burning and uncontrolled harvesting are threatening the easy availability of some medicinal plants. There are many quacks and opportunists in the field of traditional and complementary medicine practice in this country. There has not been any formal or any real research, to the best of my knowledge, in any of the types of complementary medicine in Ghana. One still hears of professionals in allopathic/modern medicine who openly and severely rebuke patients and/or their relations for visiting a herbal medicine practitioner(s) during the course of an illness.  Because of fear of rebuke patients normally deny that they ever visited a herbal medicine practitioner(s). Herbal medicine grade has now been establishment in the Ministry of Health.  But it is taking much too long to establish the facilities in the various chosen institutions for them to start any meaningful work. Lack of specialization programs for these practitioners in the field as in India and other countries. There is therefore the need for collaboration in Ghana to transform the health system for instance, the Allopthic Medicine Practitioner by virtue of his/her training is in the best position to play a leading role in the team work for the development and practice of the herbal and complementary medicines in a holistic health care system in the advance world allopathic cancer centers.  In Ghana for instance the Centre in Mampong runs purely herbal medicine clinic.  Currently there is one medical practitioner in Ghana who have also specialized in herbal medicine and managing men with prostate disease using herbal medicine. National innovation policies typically focus on scientific and technological research and development. The future advancement and viabil8ity of Ghana’s herbal medicine sector, however, hinges on creating an operating environment that takes advantage of the informal nature of herbal medicine practice while continuing to encourage innovation and strengthen entrepreneurship for improved quality and efficacy of herbal medical product and practice.