Modern research, innovation and practice: The need of the hour

KUALA LUMPUR: UNIVERSITI Kuala Lumpur Royal College of Medicine Perak (UniKL RCMP) hosted the 3rd International Conference of Pharmacy & Health Sciences 2021 (ICPHS 2021) on 2 & 3 August 2021.

With the theme, Modern Research, Innovation and Practice: The Need of the Hour, the conference provides a platform for local and international academics, researchers, healthcare professionals and students for an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and expertise in related areas of interest and research and innovation in the fields of pharmacy and health sciences (such as medical imaging, physiotherapy and pharmaceutical technology).

The ICPHS is a biennial event organised by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, UniKL Royal College of Medicine. Collaborative interactions in this conference will lead to long-term cooperation between institutions, industries, and health care sectors in Malaysia as well as other countries. The conference is being co-organised with Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia and Adichunchanagiri University, India, and for the first time will be conducted online.

Datuk Dr Roziah Omar, President/CEO of Universiti Kuala Lumpur delivered a welcoming speech. It will be officiated by YBhg. Orang Kaya Kaya Imam Paduka Tuan Perak Datuk Dr. Afifi Al-Akiti, Fellow in Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, UK, and Chairman of UniKL RCMP. The Guest of Honour is the Honorable Mr. Ahmad Saidi Mohamad Daud, Member of the State Executive Council Perak Darul Ridzuan & Chairman of the Committee Education, Higher Education and Human Resources.

The conference featured a keynote lecture by Professor Teresa Lambe, OBE. She is one of the inventors and developer of the Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine as its Principal Researcher at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Her lecture is entitled The Oxford Vaccine: From the Lab to the Global Community, and will be moderated by Dato' Dr Afifi, both scholars from Oxford.

Professor Lambe will tell us the story of how the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine was invented and jointly developed with Astra-Zeneca and then distributed almost for free, at cost value, for vaccination in more than 160 countries across six continents.

To date, it has been administered to over 200 million individuals in mass vaccination programmes. The WHO (World Health Organization) has granted the Oxford vaccine Emergency Use Listing, and the vaccine has already been supplied to 100 countries through the COVAX facility.

Professor Teresa Lambe is a Principal Investigator at The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, UK where she oversaw the university's COVID-19 vaccine programme, which led to the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has now been administered to almost half a billion people around the world.

Professor Teresa Lambe, University of Oxford describes in ICPHS 2021 about how her team was able to develop the COVID-19 vaccine quickly and make it available to the global community.

The ICPHS 2021 has attracted hundreds of participants from more than 10 countries which includes the US, Australia, France, India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, Ukraine, Republic of Mauritius, Republic of Seychelles and Malaysia and is an honour for Malaysia to host this Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine inventor and developer.