UKZN Lecturer Co-Winner of International Pharmaceutical Award

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College of Health Sciences Senior lecturer, Mr Andy Gray is the co-winner of the annual Helen Clark-Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice (JoPPP) Award for Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice Research.

The other co-winners are Mr Birna Trap of Denmark and Mr Paul Newton of the University of Oxford in England.

The trio is being presented with the award based on the scientific merit of their work as well as its impact on patients, decision-makers and governments.

‘I am honoured to be included among a very distinguished set of previous and current award winners, each of whom has made significant contributions in this field,’ Gray said.

Since 2018, the annual Helen Clark-JoPPP Award has recognised the talents of exceptional researchers making a significant contribution to the field of pharmaceutical policy and practice.

The award is named after Helen Clark, a previous Prime Minister of New Zealand and Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, to acknowledge her significant contribution in the field of health and global development.

Clark is now co-chairing an independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to review its co-ordination of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Clark said: ’Many congratulations to all the award winners. It is heartening to see that their work is making a remarkable impact on the development of policies as well as on improving the health of patients and consumers.’

Said Chair of the judging panel and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Professor Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar: ‘Many congratulations on the well-deserved success. This year the award winners have made a significant contribution to the advancement of pharmaceutical policy research.’

Gray is in the Division of Pharmacology in the Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UKZN. The Discipline is designated as a WHO collaborating centre on pharmaceutical policy and evidence based practice. He is also Honorary Senior Scientist: Consultant Pharmacist for the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and a visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University in Makhanda (Grahamstown).

A member of the WHO’s Expert Panel on Drug Policies and Management, he is a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA) and a Fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).

Widely published and having served as a reviewer for a variety of international and local journals, he is associate editor of the SA Pharmaceutical Journal, section editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, and is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, Health Systems and Reform, and BMC Health Services Research (an open access healthcare journal).

He has also been a member of the editorial committee of the SA Health Review.

Words: Nombuso Dlamini

Photograph: Supplied