Biography
Professor Sultan Suleman Wega
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences
Institute of Health, Jimma University
E-mail: sultan.suleman@ju.edu.et, sultan.sulemanl@gmail.com
Phone: +251 911 74 23 54
Professor Sultan Suleman was born in Bure/Ilu Abba Bor (at a specific village called Nabo) of Oromia regional state, Ethiopia in 1980. He started his elementary education in Degoye Primary school and his secondary education in Bure Comprehensive Secondary school.
Professor Sultan, a pharmacy graduate and pharmacist by profession, holds a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Ghent (Belgium) in February 2016. Since his recruitment at School of Pharmacy of Jimma University in September 2001, he has been serving the school at different levels, starting from the then graduate assistant II to the current academic position, Professor of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Regulatory Affairs (since June 2019). In addition to improving his technical knowledge and skills to utilize for the development of the school, he has made tremendous communications and negotiations, which enabled him to attract investments/projects and technical assistance in support of activities at the School of Pharmacy and Jimma University Hospital also called Jimma Medical Center (JMC). He utilized this great opportunity for creating long years of partnership and collaborations between different institutions and Jimma University on different projects to support efforts in improving quality of pharmacy education, introducing innovative trainings to advance pharmacy practice, improving quality of pharmacy services, and building capacity for testing quality of medicines.
Overall, he has had significant contributions for the advancement of pharmacy education and practice in Ethiopia. The following list highlights some of his contributions:
• Developed and reviewed various curricula for both undergraduate and post-graduate pharmacy academic programs.
• Initiated and established several post-graduate programs in school of pharmacy of Jimma University in partnership with national and international collaborators.
• Organized and facilitated pre-service ART training programs which contributed to the scale up and improved quality of ART services.
• Improved/renovated the infrastructure of pharmacy practice settings, and established drug information services at Jimma University Hospital/JMC
• Established a quality control/quality assurance laboratory entitled by Jimma University Laboratory of Drug Quality (JuLaDQ), which contributes to improved access to quality assured medicines,
• Secured a number of research and community service project funds, still in progress.
• Involved in a number of both national and international scientific committees, technical working groups, and forums.
Prof. Sultan has also active participation and engagement in Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association. As a result, he is contributing substantially to the overall pharmaceutical sector development in Ethiopia. Currently, he is a co-chair for the federal ministry of health taskforce for review of national medicine and medical devices policy and roadmap to the pharmaceutical sector development.
The following could briefly outline his career in education, research, and community services.
Education
Professor Sultan began teaching at School of Pharmacy in September 2001, when he was recruited as Graduate Assistant II at School of Pharmacy of Jimma University after graduating with B. Pharm degree from School of Pharmacy of Addis Ababa University. He was then promoted to the academic rank of lecturer, after pursuing his MSc study in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality Assurance at School of Pharmacy of Addis Ababa University. During more than the last 22 years, Prof. Sultan has been teaching both undergraduate and graduate programs of various disciplines of Pharmaceutical Sciences both in Ethiopia, Kenya and Belgium.
Prof. Sultan has been supervising more than 30 MSc students of various disciplines; most of whom have already completed their study. Currently, he has more than 12 PhD students registered for the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Jimma University/Ethiopia and/or Ghent University/Belgium and/or University of Oslo/Norway under his supervision. Moreover, he is co-supervising 3 PhD students of other disciplines (environmental science and technology, Horticulture and Nutrition) who are registered at Jimma University.
Prof. Sultan has developed various curricula for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Jimma University: B. Pharm curriculum, Master program in Clinical Pharmacy, Master program in Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, Master program in pharmaceuticals and medical supplies management, and the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences doctoral program at JU is the first of its kind PhD program in the country.
Prof. Sultan has served as head of School of Pharmacy for four years (October 2005 – December 2009); during which he has been acting as chair of board of management for model pharmaceutical sectors of Jimma University. The school has got a certificate of recognition and awarded a cap of championship from Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association in 2007/8. During his school headship, Prof. Sultan has established several collaborations with MSH/RPM Plus/SPS and University of Washington on pharmaceutical education and practice; and managed infrastructural improvement and/or renovation of pharmacy practice settings at Jimma University hospital. This collaboration further helped School of Pharmacy of Jimma University to establish drug information services, clinical pharmacy postgraduate programs and the improvement and scaling up of Quality ART services through pre-service ART training programs at the university. Apart from this, Prof. Sultan has been serving in various standing committees of the university: member of the Institutional Ethical Review Board, member of Doctoral Commission of Jimma University Institute of Health, member and secretary of Jimma University Research Council, and member and secretary of Jimma University Staff Promotion Committee. He has been serving as a council member for Institute of Health Sciences Research (IHSR) during 2006-2008. Prof. Sultan has served as a Country-Case-Study lead, Ethiopia for a tripartite WHO-UNESCO-FIP Pharmacy Education Taskforce Action Plan 2008-2010, at international level.
In collaboration with University of Ghent/Belgium and through the financial support of the VLIR-IUC program, Prof. Sultan managed to establish a state-of-the-art GMP/GLP/QA/QC laboratory by the nationally and internationally indexed name of ‘Jimma University Laboratory of Drug Quality (JuLaDQ)’. JuLaDQ is currently fully supporting the all-academic programs for School of Pharmacy and the graduate programs across Jimma University. The lab is also serving the nation as a research and service lab regarding quality analytics of medicines, food/nutrition, and their residues. The lab has been establishing a quality system based on WHO pre-qualification scheme and the ISO/IEC 17025 2005 quality requirements and working towards achieving WHO-prequalification and ISO/IEC 17025 2017 accreditation.
Prof. Sultan is currently an active member and serving as a chairperson for South-West Ethiopia branch of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association. He is also serving as a member of the national committee for Pharmaceutical Sector Transformation plan established by Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association. Nationally, Prof. Sultan is a member of scientific advisory forum on Traditional Medicine for Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), Federal Ministry of Health; Technical Working Group (TWG) for National Strategy and Plan of Action for Local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and Federal Ministry of Industry; Technical Working Group (TWG) for ChemoSafe Project, Federal Ministry of Health; and African Cancer Coalition Regional Technical Working Group (WTG) for ChemoSafe Project, Ethiopia; Co-Chair for the Medicines and Medical Devices Policy and the Roadmap to the Pharmaceutical Sector Development Taskforce at the FMoH. Moreover, he is a member of Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB)-West Node Secretariat, Ethiopian Agricultural Institute (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) representing Jimma University.
Research
Prof. Sultan has developed a strong record in research since joining School of Pharmacy of Jimma University in September 2001. His area of research focuses on different aspects of pharmaceutical sciences including but not limited to Evaluation of pharmaceutical regulatory approval process in resource-limited economies; Evaluation of pharmaceutical quality and information content of different essential drugs in Ethiopia; Assessment of indigenous knowledge towards treatment of tropical and infectious diseases with endogenous herbal medicine; Clinical trials and efficacy studies for medicines of infectious and non-infectious diseases; development and validation of QC methods for pre-formulation and formulated drug products; Establishment of rational specifications for unidentified, not yet toxicity/efficacy characterized impurities, as well as develop QC methods; Development of in-vivo relevant dissolution systems for selected neglected-disease medicines; Bio-functionality evaluation of endemic plants of Ethiopia against different tropical and infectious diseases and Natural product researches: bioassay, isolation and characterizations.
Prof. Sultan has published more than 85 research articles in peer-reviewed reputable local and international journals. The focus areas of his published research articles range from ethnopharmacology of different plants used for the treatment of different diseases to the quality-by-design analytical method development for essential medicines. The articles address areas of pharmaceutical sciences including natural products/traditional medicine/ethnopharmacology, regulatory affairs, quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC), good laboratory practices (GLP)//good manufacturing practices (GMP), pharmaceutical chemistry, clinical pharmacy, and the like.
Prof. Sultan has organized and facilitated several national workshops and seminars; one of which was a symposium on “Quality Pharmaceutical Drugs: from Order to Patient” held in Jimma University, Jimma/Ethiopia in March 2013 in collaboration with Jimma University Laboratory of Drug Quality (JuLaDQ) and Drug Quality and Registration (DruQuaR), Ghent University (Belgium).
Prof. Sultan was honored and awarded “Senior Researcher Gold Medal and Certificate of Merit” on July 28/2023 and “Young Researcher Gold Medal and Certificate of Merit” on September 02/2012 by Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association (EPA) for his sustainable contribution to Pharmaceutical Research and Development. Moreover, he has got 2009 International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Congress Travel Grant Award to participate in FIP world congress of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences in Istanbul/Turkey.
Since September 2022, Prof. Sultan is a visiting scientist at Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Welcome Trust Research Program (KWTRP), as EDCTP fellow on Clinical Research and Product Development; as a member of different clinical trial projects including “An open label randomized controlled trial comparing novel combination and currently used antibiotic regimens for the empiric treatment of clinically diagnosed neonatal sepsis with a run-in confirmatory pharmacokinetic phase (NeoSep1)”, and a “VIRUTUBISHO study (a community based clinical trial of multiple micronutrient supplementation to women of reproductive age (non-pregnant & pregnant) in Kilifi county)”, Center for Geographic Medicine Research – Coast, KWTRP, Kilifi, Kenya.
Community Service
Professor Sultan has immense community service contributions at local, national and international levels.
In both Jimma city and zone of Oromia National Regional State, Prof. Sultan has been Organizing and providing in-service trainings for health care workers on rational use of antimalarial medicines; Promoting and/or increasing awareness of the community on rational use of anti-malarial medicines in the zone as part of the initiatives of malaria control programs. He is delivering public awareness creating service initiatives on medicine quality and safety, risk-based storage conditions for medicines, indigenous knowledge, and traditional herbal medicines through different locally accessible mass media programs. He has been conducting similar community service initiatives at national level.
Prof. Sultan has been coordinating and facilitating the joint “Medicine Registration Dossier Evaluation Contractual Project” between Jimma University and the then EFMHACA (the current EFDA) and contributing much to the improved access of the community to safe and effective medicines on time. Prof. Sultan has been involving in the development of the “National Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Strategy and Plan of Action (2010-2015)’’; and contributing professional inputs and guidance to the “Key Policy Recommendations” for the development of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Ethiopia.
Prof. Sultan has established a fully functional GMP-QC lab (JuLaDQ) based on Quality-by-Design (QbD) principles, which is unique to the nation and the horn of Africa; confirmed by World Health Organization (WHO) in November 2015. Moreover, he has immense community service contributions to the pharmaceutical regulatory sector in general and the quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) system in Ethiopian in particular.
Prof. Sultan is serving as an active member of various national and regional/international forums and technical working groups (TWGs). He has been contributing for the research and development of traditional medicine in Ethiopia both as a researcher and a member of “National Advisory Forum”. As a member of a ‘ChemoSafe’ TWG, Prof. Sultan has played instrumental role in the development of national training material on chemotherapy safety-drug preparations, administration, and disposal. He was involved in subsequent capacity building through training of a team of health workers who are treating cancer patients. Currently, he is serving as a regional ‘ChemoSafe’ TWG for African Cancer Coalition.
Prof. Sultan is currently serving at international level as a “Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) – Medicine Quality Group, University of Oxford, London, UK.
Prof. Sultan has been serving Jimma University for the last 22 years at various academic ranks and positions. He has been serving as Head of School of Pharmacy for more than four years, a coordinator for Drug Quality core laboratory for three years, a director for Jimma University laboratory of Drug Quality for a year and worked as immediate past Director for Jimma University Research and Grants office.
Contact
Prof. Sultan Suleman Wega
E-mail: sultan.suleman@ju.edu.et, sultan.sulemanl@gmail.com
Tel. +251911742354 (WhatsApp, Telegram)
Web of Science Researcher ID: IWU-5618-2023
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3046-6760