School of Pharmacy, AAU

May 22, 2009

Press Release

School of Pharmacy, AAU launches a Drug Information Center

A role model Drug Information Center (DIC) has been established at AAU in the premises of Black Lion Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, with the collaboration and assistance from the World Bank, Howard University (USA) and the American International Health Alliance –HIV/AIDS Twinning Center. 

The Grand Opening of this center of excellence in drug information will be held on Wednesday 27 May 2009 at 10:00 a.m., to be attended by Higher University Officials (including AAU President Andreas Eshete), Deans and Department Heads, as well as representatives from concerned organizations and overseas colleagues in the field of pharmacy education and training.

Staffed by trained faculty members of the AAU School of Pharmacy, this center of excellence on drug information services will provide comprehensive, objective, unbiased, and evidence-base information to health-care professionals for decision making and problem solving activities. The current users of the DIC’s services include healthcare professionals, the pharmaceutical industry, health policy makers, academic health departments, hospital administrators and researchers.

The DIC will also focus on serving as a center for training and research. For example, the country-wide scaling up of ART (antiretroviral therapy) and other drug treatments for HIV/AIDS patients involves an increasing complexity of HIV/AIDS pharmacotherapy. The pharmacist that is critically needed in today’s world will need to become more patient-oriented, serving as a primary source of scientifically valid information and advice, regarding the safe, appropriate, and cost-effective use of medications. Therefore, the DIC will also serve as an experiential training site for all pharmacy students, to help prepare them in their roles as drug information providers in all pharmacy settings.

Equipped with the latest drug information databases as well as reference books, the DIC will also serve as an invaluable resource on drug research.

The DIC will respond to queries related to:

- drug therapy of diseases;

- drug therapy in special populations;

- adverse drug reactions;

- drug interactions;

- pharmacodynamics;

- pharmacokinetics;

- pharmacogenetics, and,

- the social use of drugs.

Queries can be posed via different modalities, including telephone, e-mail, fax or walk-in.

Contact address:

Drug Information center

Black Lion Hospital

Basement Room No. F-006

P.O.Box

Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Tel: +251 11 5545457

+251 11 5545459

Fax: +251 11 5545481

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website:http://www.aau.edu.et/index.php/academics-/schools/school-of-pharmacy