The Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry has appointed Willy Soriney as its chairperson for the year 2020/2021.
Soriney takes over from Dr Anastasia Nyalita whose term comes to an end after elections held on Thursday.
Soriney works with Pfizer, a US based premier multinational biopharmaceutical company as the Director for Strategic Partnerships.
He is a tenured professional in the pharmaceutical industry with rich experience from leading bio-pharmaceutical companies.
He worked with AstraZeneca before transitioning to Pfizer where he has been for over 10 years.
In his acceptance speech, Soriney noted that the current global health pandemic have made it clear that there is need for action, adding that it is time to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and practice in the healthcare space.
“As an industry association representing the most robust research and development pharmaceutical companies we have a responsibility to translate this to impact which can happen when we connect with key players in the space,” he said.
“In the recent past we have seen science being relegated on certain accounts with individuals making uncensored and unverified claims on critical matters like the use of hydroxychloroquine in management of Covid-19. We have to rise to the occasion and play our part.”
Other members of the board who were elected are: Vinod Guptan (General Manager, Surgipharm Limited), Dr Francis Karanja (Regulatory Affairs Cluster Head, Africa, GlaxoSmithKline) and Dr Evah Amwayi (Africa Regulatory Affairs Manager, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare).
Others include Dr Angeline Achoka (Regulatory Affairs Manage, Imperial Managed Solutions), Dr Mokoro James (Regulatory Affairs Manager, Reckitt Benckiser) and Sarah Muthuri (Regulatory Affairs Manager, Novartis) and Dr Winnie Ng’ang’a (Regulatory Affairs Manager, GlaxoSmithKline).
Under the new leadership the association looks at driving action for responsive and evidence based policies to cater for the clinical and medical needs of Kenyans.
Additionally, through the member companies and different companies, the association will champion ethical practices in the healthcare sector to ensure patients have access to safe, effective and quality assured healthcare products and technologies when and where they need them.
