In the Industrial Pharmacy Lab, our team have developed a successful translational research program. The majority of our research activities were directed toward product development for clinical applications. We have diversified our research portfolio as evidenced from the scopes of the grants we secured, the MSc and PhD projects we supervise, and the research collaborations we established. The research portfolio we developed over the years spans disease states and conditions such as diabetes, cancer, communicable diseases, allergy and immunology, all of which are within the research priorities and the country’s challenges identified as pillars in Qatar’s National Health Strategy (QNHS, 2018-2022). We were able to fit very well into these research areas using our application-based training and skills in pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, and drug delivery and analysis.
We have successfully established research collaborations both nationally and internationally. Among the 30 grant applications in the national level, we were able to secure around $825,000 USD (over 3M Qatari Riyal) of funding; both internally from QU and externally from funding agencies such as Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
It is noteworthy to mention that the research collaboration with three different groups in Hamad General Hospital (HGH) resulted in planning for three clinical trials to evaluate the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics profiles in special populations in Qatar receiving several commonly used medications of high clinical impact. This specific type of research with HGH is the first-of-its-kind in Qatar and expected to improve the delivery of health care in this country and the region. In addition, the strong research collaboration program with the Ambulance Service of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMCAS) around the assessment and validation of the stability of emergency medicines in medical settings is expected to improve the health care system in ambulance service under harsh summer conditions in Qatar.