Story & Photos by Niyi TabitiChief Reporter
On Thursday 24 April 2008, UBA Plc led by suave and articulate banker,Mr.Tony Elumelu, the title sponsor of this year's African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), put together a colourful ceremony to support the Sicle Cell Foundation.The red carpet ceremony tagged 'AMAA nominees party for sickle cell Foundation' is part of efforts aimed at raising funds for research and people suffering from the ailment.It is also an awareness campaign so that people can stop stigmatising people with SS.
The Sickle Cell Foundation is led by Professor Olu Akinyanju.A man known for commitment and integrity since he has been championing the campaign.They used the opportunity to raise money from invited guests at the ceremony.
Celine E. Loader, the Divisional Head,Brand and Corporate Communication,UBA plc conveyed the message of her Group Managing Director, who was unavoidable absent at the ceremony.She assured that her company would continue to be committed to meaniful humanitarian causes. Peace Ayiam-Osigwe,the President of AMAA was also excited at the turn out and she promises that her organisation will not relent in making sure that more awareness is achieved in the area of Sicke Cell.
Expectedly,the Lagoon Restaurant,Victorioa Island, venue of the event was packed full of 'fine faces'.www.niyitabiti.blogspot.com captured some of it here!
The event kicked off around 7 p.m and those that thrilled us with their peformances on stage included Gbenga Adeyinka The first,Koffi and music star, faze.
omotola looks nice...not feeling the hair, but she looks really nice and toned....good on her!!!
ReplyDeletestepahie looks lovely
ReplyDeleteStephanie is beautiful. Torquoise really suits her beautiful complexion. More to her. The event looks well attended judging from the pictures taken.
ReplyDeleteOh lala...stephanie just looks so glam. Omosexy has really heightened her fashion style up o.
ReplyDeleteP.s.: Niyi...great job! You know you've made it when folks can't get enough of you blog! :D...kudos my broda;)
ReplyDeleteWow.....OMOTOLA looks gr8t.........
ReplyDeleteNICOSAN, FDA Orphan Drug for the Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease Produced in Nigeria
ReplyDeleteI would like to make you aware that there is a
non-toxic viable treatment for sickle cell in the
world and awaiting application for approval in the
U.S. and E.U. In clinical trials 80% of patients had no
crises and in the refractory 20% crises were reduced
by half.
Through awareness there may come availability for
those who so desperately need it. All it is going to
take is the effort of a few individuals, patients and
doctors to make this drug a reality in the U.S. sooner
than later. Although this drug was developed in
Nigeria, the man who perfected it, Dr. Ramesh Pandey is a
distinguished biochemist who has worked for the
National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Frederick Cancer
Research Center as a Senior Scientist, Head of the
Chemistry Section, Abbott Pharmaceuticals and
produced the first commercially viable generic version
of Vancomycin for Lyphomed Inc., a Visiting Professor
at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey, holds patents for
biotechnology analysis and rare drug production
processes. He also holds several US and international
patents for paclitaxel and its new analogs. He is a
member of the Editorial Board of the International
Journal of Antibiotics and of several professional
societies. He has been awarded several grants from
NASA, NCI and NIH. The drug NICOSAN has been granted
Orphan Drug Status by both the FDA and E.U..
This new treatment for sickle cell is being produced in Nigeria
by an American pharmaceutical company, trade name NICOSAN®,
and it's proprietary name is NIPRISAN® . It was developed on the
premise of traditional Nigerian plant based medicinal practices
for the treatment of sickle cell disease.
It has been tested through phase IIb clinical trials and
found to be highly efficacious. Phase III trials have yet
to be completed however it was approved for sale in Nigeria
based on phase IIb trials and toxicity studies which showed
it to be safe and non-toxic.
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised cross-over
clinical trial of NIPRISAN® in patients with Sickle Cell
Disorder
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GVW-4DS346T-1S&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=211981d545303693affebb8c012d2cac
Efficacy of Niprisan in the prophylactic management of
patients with sickle cell disease
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VS8-43DFJCH-G&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=10528ecbab3ec7e977301fb9f2688ef6
NIPRISAN -- Nix-0699 Toxicity Studies
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?StoryID=15890720&full=1
Niprisan (Nix-0699) improves the survival rates of
transgenic sickle cell mice under acute severe hypoxic
conditions
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2141.2003.04536.x?journalCode=bjh
THE DEVELOPMENT OF NICOSANTM/HEMOXINTM
A DRUG FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SICKLE CELL DISEASE.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
http://shestco.net/5_tech_park/nicosan.pdf
NIPRISAN Case, Nigeria
A Report for GenBenefit (2007)
http://www.theparliament.com/NR/rdonlyres/F46A1A12-0A1A-41DA-9F5D-A11486CA9BFA/0/Nigerian_Case.pdf
This drug is a major advancement in the treatment of sickle
cell disease unfortunately it is not available in the U.S..
Although the compound has been granted orphan drug status
by the FDA and the regulatory body of the European Union,
to date investigational drug applications for the approval
process have yet to be submitted. Getting a drug approved
in either area is extremely expensive. Until there is
funding available to proceed with the FDA and EU
applications it will be difficult for non-Nigerians to
obtain the drug.
We already know the benefits of the treatments available in
the U.S. and the E.U.. In many cases they are only
marginally effective or in the case of hydroxyurea cause
side effects so serious that many choose not to use it as
treatment. Here we have an opportunity to use a treatment
that has been shown to be highly effective, eradicating
crises in the majority of patients and reducing crises by
50% in the most refractory cases.
Although the clinical trial group was what the casual
reader might interpret as quite small it is common for
drugs which fall into the orphan drug category to use small
sample groups. Many orphan drugs have been approved based
on very small phase II and phase IIb clinical trials in the
U.S. In the case of FDA fast track status, a drug may be
approved during phase II trials if the drug shows
significant advantage over current approved therapies for
life threatening illness.
Nicosan by Western standards is an extremely inexpensive
drug. It is available in Nigeria without prescription at
$23/month for adults and child doses at $18/month.
Here is a link to the company and product website.
http://xechemnigeria.com/products.htm
I sincerely hope that you find this information helpful. I
would encourage you to forward and post this information
to any person, blog or website where persons effected by
sickle cell anemia can have access to this information.
Feel free to write me with any questions you may have.
Kristina Bruce RN
NicosanForSickleCell@yahoo.com
United Nations Economic Commission For Africa
ReplyDeleteBook Of Abstracts
Science With Africa Conference
March 3-7, 2008
page 30
Evaluation of Niprisan (Herbal Medicine) for the Management of Sickle Cell
Anaemia
Charles Wambebe and Hadiza Khamofu, International Biomedical Research in Africa, Abuja,
Nigeria, wambebe@yahoo.com, Joseph Okogun, Nathan Nasipuri and Karynius Gamaniel,
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Abuja, Nigeria.
About 70% of all sickle cell anemia (SCA) subjects reside in Africa, estimated at over 12 million. The prevalence of SCA is estimated at over 2% while infant mortality is about 8% and survival rate of SCA babies in rural areas by five years of age is about 20%. These statistics indicate that SCA is probably the most neglected (and sometimes forgotten by health authorities) serious public health disorder with serious mortality and morbidity rates in Africa. The objective was to undertake pre-clinical and clinical assessments of a herbal extract vis-à-vis management of sickle cell anemia using Good Laboratory Practice and Good Clinical Practice principles respectively. In Africa, there is no standard treatment for sickle cell anemia, only palliative management is generally available. In view of this situation, most
SCA subjects use herbal medicines. NIPRISAN is a standardized extract from four medicinal/food plants: Piper guineenses seeds, Pterocarpus osun stem, Eugenia caryophyllum fruit and Sorghum bicolor leaves. Short term toxicity study indicated that NIPRISAN was safe in laboratory animals. Bio-activity guided fractionation show that vanillin and aromatic aldehydes may be the bioactive moieties. NIPRISAN reversed sickled red blood cells and
protected them from being sickled when exposed to low oxygen tension. NIPRISAN dose- dependently delayed polymer formation of haemoglobin S. NIPRISAN induced 85% increased solubility of deoxy haemoglobin S. The in vivo efficacy study was undertaken at Children Hospital of Philadelphia, USA. Histological examination of lungs of control Tg transgenic mice carrying human sickle haemoglobin showed entrapment of massive numbers
of sickled cells in alveolar capillaries. NIPRISAN significantly cleared the lungs of sickled cells. Furthermore, NIPRISAN induced profound effect on the survival time of Tg mice under hypoxic conditions (p<0.0001). The phase II clinical data indicated that all the subjects benefited from NIPRISAN with no serious adverse effect. About 80% of the subjects did not experience any crisis during the study (12 months). The subjects experienced significant
reduction in hospital admission while attendance at school profoundly increased. Furthermore, there was no evidence of kidney or liver damage. NIPRISAN has been patented, licensed to an American company, registered and being manufactured at Abuja for
global market.
http://www.uneca.org/sciencewithafrica/content/swa_book_of_abstacts-en.pdf
Stephanie looks really good and Omotola looks sexy.
ReplyDeletePlease, next time you see Omotola, help me ask her the secret to her skinny-ness o...wow i didnt even recognise her. What's her new thing with showing her bra, is it supposed to be cute, lol...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pics, everyone looks nice! (Ok, almost everone)
stephanie looks good. luv d dress would have loved 2 have seen d back of d dress.
ReplyDeletelady in green...2 words..Avant garde! That necklace looks painful tho. isnt she a ghananian actress? she looks familiar.
omotola...looks slim! her make up made her look a lil different. all around..good look sha.
im waitin 4 pics from d AMA. niyi u as well as ur blog are addictive
stephanie looks good. luv d dress would have loved 2 have seen d back of d dress.
ReplyDeletelady in green...2 words..Avant garde! That necklace looks painful tho. isnt she a ghananian actress? she looks familiar.
omotola...looks slim! her make up made her look a lil different. all around..good look sha.
im waitin 4 pics from d AMA. niyi u as well as ur blog are addictive
is that OMOTOLA??? HOw is it that she keeps lOOKING YOUNG??? she has 5 KIDS!!!!!!!! how is that possible??
ReplyDeleteWOW! this is the very best ive ever seen Omotola. she looks amazing. Please keep it up!
ReplyDeleteanonymous.......
ReplyDeletethe older readies should be wary of exposing their bodies. Its a shame to our african morality. it equally breeds indescriminate sexual crime in the society.Our kids are watching us. Its disgusting to see ladies exposing their God given beauty in public.