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 Wega is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Regulatory Affairs at the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences Institute of Health, Jimma University. He 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 Suleman, a pharmacy graduate and pharmacist by profession, holds a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Ghent (Belgium) in December 2015. 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. In addition to improving his technical knowledge and skills to utilize for the development of the school, he is able to make 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. 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 a number of 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
- 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.
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 12 years, Prof. Sultan has been teaching both undergraduate and graduate programs of various disciplines of Pharmaceutical Sciences both in Ethiopia, and Belgium.
Prof. Sultan has been supervising more than 20 MSc students of various disciplines; most of whom have already completed their study. Currently, he has more than 5 PhD students registered for the PhD program in Pharmaceutical Sciences at Jimma University and Ghent University 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.
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 a number of 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, and member and secretary of Jimma University Research Council. 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 academic programs in particular for School of Pharmacy and the post-graduate programs in general for the whole 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 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. 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 45 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 is the first and/or corresponding author for more than 25% of the published articles; and the major contributor for the remaining publications. He has first-authored 17 abstracts all of which were presented at national and international scientific meetings here in Ethiopia as well as abroad.
Prof. Sultan has organized and facilitated a number of 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 has been a co-investigator for a number of internationally funded research projects like WHO/TDR funded project on home management of malaria using coartem®; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals clinical trial project on mebendazole chewable tablets; and a CDC-USAID AIRS-Ethiopia funded Insecticide residue analysis project; and University of Konstaz and University of Munich (Germany) funded projects on Khat. Currently, he is acting as a lead scientist on VLIR-funded NETWORK research project on “Antimalarial bio-functionality evaluation of endemic plants of Ethiopia” and NESCARE research project on “Safety and efficacy of single oral dose of eprinomectin and doramectin for possible eradication of malaria transmission
Prof. Sultan was honored and awarded gold medal and certificate of merit for his contribution to the Pharmaceutical Research and Development in Ethiopia for the year 2012 by Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association (EPA). 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.
Community Service
Prof. Sultan is a founding member of ‘Manbarnootaaf Initiative’, an initiative organized by the VLIR IUC/JU scholars (south) and the Flemish people to support various schools in Jimma zone. In addition to his involvement in the education sector, he has been effectively initiating and participating in various sectors of overall health care development activities in Jimma zone. As part of the initiatives of malaria control programs in the zone, 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, quality and safety of medicines, indigenous knowledge and traditional herbal medicines through different locally accessible mass media programs like Jimma University Community Radio 102.0 and Jimma FBC 98.1; and Mobilizing the community for appropriate malaria care seeking. Currently, he is a member of Jimma City Development Advisory forum, and contributed to the successful completion of the first Oromia cities forum held in Jimma.
Prof. Sultan has established a fully functional GMP-QC lab (JuLaDQ), 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. He 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 my professional inputs and guidance to the “Key Policy Recommendations” for the development of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in Ethiopia.
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 has been serving Jimma University for the last 17 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 currently working as a Director for Jimma University Research and Grants office.