Nigerian diaspora pharmaceutical group launches peer-reviewed journal

Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA) Inc. has launched a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the American Journal of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (AJPPS).

In a press statement by NAPPSA to announce the launch, which was signed by the journal’s co-founder and chair of the Journal Management Board, Anthony Ikeme, the journal is a culmination of two years of hard work and core part of the NAPPSA 10-Year Growth Strategy Plan launched in 2020.

“NAPPSA now stands as the very first Nigerian Diasporan professional organisation to own her own peer reviewed journal,” Ikeme said.

The journal has further reinforced the body’s leadership role and its desire to support global health by enabling the advancement of pharmaceutical practice, sciences and education, particularly in its homeland. It also allows the NAPPSA scientific community the opportunity to help shape the global research agenda. Other key initiatives highlighted in the roadmap, launched in 2020 by Ikeme as then-president, include a NAPPSA Endowment Fund (NEF), the acquisition of a NAPPSA House in Washington DC Metropolis and the set-up of a NAPPSA Research Institute (NRI).

According to NAPPSA, AJPPS is an open-access peer-reviewed journal committed to publishing high-quality articles in the field of Pharmacotherapy, Public Health, Ethnomedicine, Toxicology, Food Science, Nutrition, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Speaking on the significance of the milestone while expressing his delight and satisfaction with the feat, Ikeme said NAPPSA has “attained another milestone in its quest to become one of the respected thought leaders in the evolution of pharmacy and pharmaceutical science discipline and an important voice for our community.”

Read also: Pharmacists group urges FG to reconstitute health sector committee

According to him, “This is a massive accomplishment that we should be very proud of because AJPPS is not like any other journal. Any individual or group of individuals can set up a journal, but there is something uniquely special about a professional organization owning a Peer Review-Journal and deploying their collective intellectual will to the advancement of their profession.”

The association said the journal, whose editorial board comprises a panel of experts from pharmaceutical science and allied health, has a highly rigorous peer-review process that makes sure that manuscripts are scientifically accurate, relevant, and novel.

The journal will be edited by Patrick Nwakama, PharmD BCPS Food and Drug Administration Silver Spring, MD and Ashiwel Undieh, PhD, City University of New York School of Medicine, New York, USA, who assured of the highest global ethical standard in line with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), that set standards and provide guidelines for best practices. The Journal Editorial Board includes prominent professionals and scientists, including Dr. Teresa Pounds (current President of NAPPSA), Prof. Moji Adeyeye (DG of NAFDAC), and Dr. Henrietta Ukwu (Senior Vice President, Novavax Inc.)

NAPPSA, representing over 7,000 pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, pharmaceutical educators in the Americas, has continued to show leadership and remains a bellwether of critical intervention initiatives in Nigeria’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s quest to build local capacity for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical and medical products. In 2020, it took the lead in the donation of coronavirus pandemic diagnostics, PPEs and other medical consumables to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The association was also instrumental in creating a pathway for the marketing and distribution of O-Care medical face masks, produced in Nigeria, in the United States.

Ikeme called on members and Nigerian-based pharmaceutical scientists and professionals in related fields “who have the inclination to submit their manuscripts for consideration” for publication in the journal.