Utrecht Centre for
Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation
Luther Gwaza
Class of:
2013
Current affiliation:
WHO
Contact:
gwazal@gmail.com
lgwaza@yahoo.co.uk
Motivation:
Luther Gwaza looks at regulatory science from a development perspective, which is inevitable for someone practicing in typical developing country settings where these principles are partially implemented. His PhD thesis and work experience exemplify this dichotomy; combining application of computational methods in bioequivalence studies, and collaborative models for medical product regulation in his PhD thesis and scientific publications, and his work experience as an assessor for medicines registration while providing capacity building and systems strengthening to regulators in Africa and Asia.
Education and experience:
Luther Gwaza obtained a bachelor of pharmacy (honours) in 2005, and master of philosophy (MPhil) in pharmacology in 2009, both from the University of Zimbabwe. He defended his PhD in Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation in July 2016 at the Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Luther has extensive knowledge and experience in the regulation of medicines, vaccines and other health products at a national and international level. He is currently working as a Consultant Regulatory Officer with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe. Previously, he worked as a pharmaceutics lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe until 2012. He has consulted for various international organizations such as World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and International Finance Cooperation (IFC), on systems strengthening, harmonization, collaboration and cooperation in medicines regulation in Africa and Asia. Luther has been a visiting Fogarty Research Fellow at the School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), United States in 2006 and 2010 working on pharmacokinetics and drug interactions. He has published scientific articles in peer reviewed journals on drug interactions, and bioequivalence.
Title former PhD project:
Adjusted indirect treatment comparisons of bioequivalence studies
Team members and other people involved:
The research work on indirect treatment comparisons of generic medicines was done in collaboration with the WHO Prequalification Team – Medicines.