Entrepreneur Feisal Nahaboo set to offer pharmacogenomics as Alitam’s preventative healthcare system gets underway

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Published 24th Feb 2022, 10:51 BST
Updated 24th Feb 2022, 11:19 BST

In a move which is set to improve the nation’s health, Feisal Nahaboo—founder and CEO of visionary pharmacy group Alitam—has today announced plans to roll out a cutting-edge pharmacogenomics service within Alitam pharmacies, headed by the highly esteemed Alitam pharmacist, and one of the field’s leading pioneers, Professor Mark Ledwidge.

Entrepreneur Feisal Nahaboo, founder and CEO of pharmacy group Alitam, has today announced plans to roll out a cutting-edge pharmacogenomics service within its pharmacies across the UK and Ireland.

It is planned that more than 500 pharmacies led by Alitam across the UK and Ireland will offer the revolutionary service within the next three years, and which will deliver ‘precision medicine’ tailored to a patient’s individual genetic makeup.

This, it is claimed, will significantly reduce the number of people who have to be admitted to hospital through harmful drug-gene interactions.

The launch of the new service will be headed by highly esteemed Alitam pharmacist Professor Mark Ledwidge (BSc Pharm, PhD, DBS, MPSI), one of pharmacogenomics’ leading pioneers.

Such a futuristic, yet shortly implementable, service sits at the heart of Nahaboo’s vision for Alitam, the 100-plus store ‘Pharmacy of the Future’ that will build a healthcare service focused on preventative medicine rather than reactive—and more costly—disease treatment.

With NHS waiting lists now at an all-time high of 6million for routine operations and treatments, this initiative will benefit people across the UK and Ireland while relieving pressure on hospitals and GP surgeries.

A buzzword in the pharmacy and medical worlds, pharmacogenomics is a rapidly expanding field of research that studies how a person’s genes affect how they respond to medications.

With research showing that 40 per cent of a patient’s response to a drug is led by their genes, pharmacogenomics is being heralded as a revolution in medicine, yielding crucial insights into disease treatment that promise better outcomes for patients and reduced hospitalisations.

It is estimated that as many as one in five people are taking medication where there is an ‘important’ drug-gene interaction, with up to 20 per cent of hospitalisations worldwide being due to adverse drug reactions.

Nahaboo says that out of all sectors of the UK’s healthcare system, it is pharmacy where the insights from pharmacogenomics will be most applicable.

He said: “Pharmacists are already, by the nature of their job, well versed in drug-drug interactions (how one particular drug might react with another) and drug-disease interactions.

“What we’re looking at now, through the latest genomic sequencing, is how a drug will be processed by an individual. How will they metabolise it? Which dosage should we use? Which side effects are they likely to experience? Will the medicine work or not?

“We’ve all known for some time there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to healthcare. This is the proof.

Professor Mark Ledwidge, adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin, will lead the roll out of Alitam’s new pharmacogenomics service across the UK and Ireland.Professor Mark Ledwidge, adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin, will lead the roll out of Alitam’s new pharmacogenomics service across the UK and Ireland.
Professor Mark Ledwidge, adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin, will lead the roll out of Alitam’s new pharmacogenomics service across the UK and Ireland.

Speaking about the appointment of Professor Ledwidge, he added: “Bringing Mark Ledwidge into the Alitam fold was vitally important.

“Not only is he a highly respected community pharmacist in Cork with an academic role in the School of Medicine at University College Dublin but also entrepreneurial and caring in his practice with an interest in the Pharmacy of the Future concept.

“On first meeting we talked at length about his awareness of the need to support the NHS and HSE as they face enormous waiting lists, relieving the burden on secondary healthcare services where possible, and generally empowering people to be in better health.

“This is precisely the Alitam mandate: to deliver the kind of personalised, preventative healthcare through pharmacies which will increase life expectancy and quality of life throughout our communities.

“I headhunted Professor Ledwidge based on his reputation as a leader with an interest in pushing the boundaries of pharmacy and pharmacogenomics.

“I immediately knew pharmacogenomics was the perfect fit for Alitam pharmacies; that it would form a cornerstone of our Pharmacy of the Future concept.”

Professor Mark Ledwidge is the latest in a string of high-profile appointments for Alitam, following the announcement earlier this month of former Credit Suisse MD Zachary Brech as the Group’s new chief financial officer (CFO), and Antony Isaacs, former MD of HSBC Global Banking and Markets, as a consultant to the Alitam board.

They join an already impressive management team including such big city figures as Sir Ken Olisa OBE and Dhruv Patel OBE.

Professor Ledwidge is an adjunct Professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin, while also running his Cork pharmacy practice.

He was Co-Chair of the National Pharmacy Reference Group in Ireland and has been a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Human Medicines for the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority).