‘How I developed drugs for diabetes, cancer treatment’

What inspired the discovery of  the new drugs? The prevalence of diabetes and cancer, especially in developing countries, is alarming. The recent estimate by International Diabetes Federation, says that in Nigeria there is about 1.7 million people presently living with diabetes and there is about 7.7 people with impaired glucose tolerance.  Therefore, looking at the […]

What inspired the discovery of  the new drugs?

The prevalence of diabetes and cancer, especially in developing countries, is alarming. The recent estimate by International Diabetes Federation, says that in Nigeria there is about 1.7 million people presently living with diabetes and there is about 7.7 people with impaired glucose tolerance. 

Therefore, looking at the huge economic costs for the treatment of these diseases characterized with enormous economic and social suffering that pushed many families into poverty, informed our decision on the need to develop drug using the indigenous natural resource for treatment of the diseases.

The leaves of the baobab tree and Duo palm are some of the indigenous herbs that formed part of the combination of the locally sourced herbs for the production of the drugs.

How common are the indigenous herbs used in developing these drugs?

They are a combination of herbs that you can get in Kano and Jigawa states.

We are actually, working on type II diabetes because it is the type that has high prevalence rate that covers about 90 percent among patients suffering from the disease.

What is the stage of the research development of the new drug?

Presently, we are moving into the clinical trial stage because we have successfully completed the pre- clinical trial of the drugs. 

We have gotten ethical approval from Kano State Hospital Management Board to conduct the clinical trial of the drug at Mohammed Abdullahi Specialists Hospital, Kano. Before then we conducted a pre- clinical trial by validating the drugs’ safety, efficacy and standardized methods of providing the drugs.

If the clinical trial becomes successful, what is next?

Our concern for now is to see to the success of the trial.

It is an ongoing research. I can’t give you a dateline of when it will be completed. Once we reached a stage where something comes up, we will let you know about our findings.

Why is the permission for clinical trial from a state government and not from the national level?

For any research, one has to start from one point to the other; in this research we chose to start from Kano. Perhaps, at the subsequent stages it will be at national or even international level.

What forms are the newly developed drugs, tablet or capsule?

We produced the first version of the clinical trial drug in form of capsules.