Professor Olobayo Olufunsho KUNLE is a Pharmacist with over 40 years post qualification experience. He holds a Masters and a PhD in pharmaceutics. He has been engaged in various aspects of research over the past 40 years. He was a pioneer member of staff of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Abuja, where he set up the Department of Pharmaceutics. As a researcher he has been actively involved in the development of dosage forms for new medicines in addition to his work on the development of pharmaceutical raw materials, especially starches and the formulation of Nigerian herbal medicines into standardized formulations, areas in which he is an authority. He was Principal Investigator for a number of internationally funded research projects. He has collaborated with several scientists both within and outside the country on research projects and has published about 100 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals and made presentations at both local and international conferences. He is the Managing Editor of the Institute’s Journal, JOPAT in addition to which he is a reviewer for several local and international journals. He was also a member of the NIPRD Health Research Ethics Committee. He is experienced in policy formulation serving on a number of government committees including; the Ministerial Committee for the development of Guidelines for drug distribution in Nigeria, the Presidential Committee on the Pharmaceutical Sector, Committee on Drafting and Monitoring of the Health Sector Reforms, Committee on a Pharmacovigilance policy for Nigeria and the Investigation Committee of the Kano Trovan Clinical Trials whose report led to landmark changes in clinical trial regulation internationally. He also served on the Governing Boards of some Agencies including NAFDAC and the PCN. He has collaborated with several scientists both within and outside the country on research projects. He has spent time in other including Howard University where he participated in the   simplification of the synthesis of some antimalarials. He was a Visiting Professor of Pharmaceutics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University and is presently a Visiting Professor at University of Abuja and Veritas University, Abuja Nigeria.

He is presently a Member/Rapporteur of the WHO Regional Advisory Committee on traditional medicines for COVID-19; Alternate Lead of the Research Functional Group of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19; Chairman of NIPRD Task Team on COVID-19; and Member/Rapporteur of the Exploratory Group on the International Herbal Pharmacopeia. He was Acting Director General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical research and Development (NIPRD) in which role he ensured the accreditation of some of the Institute’s laboratories to ISO 17025. He was most recently the Chief of Staff at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria in which role he commenced the efforts towards the accreditation of some of scopes in the National Metrological Institute (NMI). In addition, he ensured the retention and expanded accreditation of scopes in the SON Laboratories in line with ISO 17025. He was a member of the FCT Drug Abuse Control Committee for several years.