Encounter with a pharmacist ahead of his time

Every once in a while, the course of history is traversed and consequently transfigured by certain individuals, who brighten up the world around them and blaze a trail of excellence for those coming after them.  As I write, the pharmaceutical world and indeed the scientific world is witnessing one of such pacesetters. Meet Prof. Isa […]

Every once in a while, the course of history is traversed and consequently transfigured by certain individuals, who brighten up the world around them and blaze a trail of excellence for those coming after them.  As I write, the pharmaceutical world and indeed the scientific world is witnessing one of such pacesetters. Meet Prof. Isa Odidi, an erudite pharmacist, scientist, innovator, first-rate technocrat and consummate entrepreneur, whose foremost passion is bridging the worlds of design, science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, with a view to maximising the outcome for economic and social advancement in developing economies such as Nigeria.
With over 100 issued and pending patents in the USA, Canada and other international jurisdictions, Prof. Odidi is globally recognised as a prolific inventor in pharmaceutics and pharmaceutical technology.  He is acclaimed for pioneering controlled, targeted or timed release drug delivery technologies and their “reduction to practice” to allow commercialisation and use for the common good.  His works have been cited in several publications and he has published over a hundred scientific and medical papers, articles and textbooks.
It is no surprise that his contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences continue to be recognised and acknowledged globally. Currently, Prof. Odidi is chairman, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer (CSO) of Intellipharmaceutics International Inc., Toronto, Canada, a pharmaceutical company specialising in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of generic controlled-release and targeted-release dosage drugs. The “Fortune 500”pharmaceutical company was co-founded with his wife, Dr Amina Odidi – herself a world-class scientist. 
Prof. Odidi studied Pharmacy at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. It was in the course of his studies in ABU (between 1976 and 1979) that he met Amina, the lady that would become his lifelong companion in marriage and career success. Both students had been in the same practical research group in the faculty of pharmacy, where Amina had stood out in conduct and countenance. Young Odidi couldn’t help falling for her charms. The two soon became friends and as they found out that they shared same belief, interests and worked well as a team. So strong was the attraction that the two decided to get married as soon as they graduated in 1979.  That union would eventually produce five children for the couple, and countless innovations for the world.
In 1982, the couple were sponsored by the Kano State government to attend Kings College, University of London to study for a Master of Science degree. Prof. Odidi graduated in 1984 with distinction in M.Sc. Pharmaceutical Technology and was awarded the Abbott Laboratories Prize for best student. Dr Amina also graduated in the same year and obtained an M.Sc., degree in Biopharmacy.
In 1986, Prof. Odidi was awarded the commonwealth scholarship to study for a Ph.D. degree and proceeded to the School of Pharmacy, University of London. That same year, Dr Amina was sponsored by the Kano State government to undertake a Ph.D. degree in the same institution. Both of them graduated in 1990 with a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics.
The sojourn and experiences of these uncommon couple at Kings College and School of Pharmacy University of London seemed to have been divinely preordained as the catalyst of their impressive rise to prominence.  A lifelong learner, Prof. Odidi attended the Western Executive Program at Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario in 1998 and went further to obtain an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada in 2007, before subsequently obtaining the Executive Education certificate in Innovation for Economic Development (IFED) at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 2013. He was also awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree Honoris Causa from the University of Benin, in the same year.
Prof. Odidi’s global reputation as a maverick inventor began to fully manifest shortly after he joined Biovail Corporation, Canada, in July 1995.  His mission was to help establish the first viable controlled release drug delivery company in Canada. Meanwhile Dr Amina had also decided to set up Intellipharmaceutics and work exclusively for Biovail as a consultant.
At the time the couple started working for Biovail, the company was merely a start-up firm as far as research was concerned. It had no research facility or team.  Yet, as the Odidis, with their Midas touch of excellence, got to work, the company’s status was transformed from a state of near bankruptcy to being a billion dollar pharmaceutical company through a series of inventions, manufacturing successes and exceptional management style. In fact, through the couple’s contributions, the company soon became the biggest controlled-release drug research outfit in North America.
Having successfully established the company’s research and development laboratories and training a team of first-rate scientists around him, Prof. Odidi went on to develop several popular drugs, including supergenerics of the very difficult to duplicate Adalat CC (Bayer) and Procardia XL (Pfizer).  Soon, he was appointed chief scientific officer of the company, in addition to being the vice president – which was unprecedented for a person of colour, much less a Nigerian immigrant to Canada.
On leaving Biovail in 1999, Prof. Odidi joined his wife at Intellipharmaceutics to be fully engaged in the business of research and innovation.   Since then, the duo have invented, developed and patented a plethora of disruptive multidimensional controlled release technology platforms that can be applied to the efficient development of a wide range of existing and new pharmaceuticals.
One remarkable feature of the life of Prof. Odidi is that even though he is based in Canada, his heart continually yearns for the well-being of his native country, Nigeria. And thus, he has been actively involved in processes and campaigns that are aimed at ensuring good governance and promoting socio-economic growth of the nation. He was appointed to serve as member of the National Political Reform Conference in 2005 as one of 200 eminent persons by Olusegun Obasanjo, then President of Nigeria, to help draft a new Nigerian constitution. In April 2007 he contested in the Nigerian presidential election under the New Democrats (ND) political party which he founded.
On 15 April, 2013, he was appointed coordinator of Diaspora Nigerians for Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).  On 3 February, 2015, he was appointed to serve as a member of the Fundraising Directorate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council. He was one of those who worked relentlessly towards the election of Muhammadu Buhari as president of Nigeria. When asked how he’s able to combine all he has to do as a scientist, entrepreneur and politician and still record outstanding success, his answer is unequivocal: “Heaven helps those who help themselves. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work. Prayer alone won’t do it – hard work as well, they go together.”
Aboderin wrote in from Lagos.