James Gathii, Albany, New York

James Thuo Gathii

James Thuo Gathii is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and the Governor George E. Pataki Chair of International Commercial Law at Albany Law School, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. His research and expertise are in the areas of public international law, international economic, international intellectual property and trade law as well as on issues of good governance and legal reform as they relate to the third world and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Before joining Albany Law School, Professor Gathii taught at the Rutgers Business School. He was also a Crowe and Dunlevy Visiting International Law Professor at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Law.

Professor Gathii has published over 40 articles and book chapters, including the Michigan Law Review. He is ranked among the Top 300 Law Authors based on total new downloads on the Social Science Research Network. Professor Gathii has presented his research at several law schools, including at Harvard, Cornell, UC Davis and the University of North Carolina and around the World including in the U.K., Italy, Canada, Kenya, Finland and Holland. He is a member of the International Law Association’s Study Committee on the Meaning of War.

Professor Gathii teaches Business Organizations, Public International Law, International Trade, International Business Transactions and International Organizations. His current research primarily focuses on the social and public policy issues relating to developing country participation in the Doha Round of negotiations with a particular interest in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Professor Gathii received his LL.B. from the University of Nairobi and his LL.M. and S.J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Source: Albany Law School

Njoki Nathani Wane, Toronto, Canada

Dr. Njoki Wane with her husband and daughter

Dr. Njoki Nathani Wane, a professor at University of Toronto is the winner of the prestigious Harry Jerome Award given to African Canadians for excelling in various fields. She was also Njoki nominated and awarded the 2008 Black Business and Professional Association award for Professional Excellence in April  2008 for advocating for change within African-Canadian community.

A Director for the  Centre for Integrative Anti-Racist Research Studies (CIARS) and an associate professor at the University of Toronto, she is a tireless advocate for African Canadians, and a champion for women’s rights, in particular.

Well published, she has also come up with Africa At a Glance, an online resource for people who want to learn more about Kenya.  To learn more about her, visit her professional page, and this article in The Standard newspaper.

David Otunga, Chicago, Illinois

Jennifer Hudson and David Otunga (WireImage)

David Otunga is probably famous for two reasons–he is engaged to Jennifer Hudson, and he was on the show, “I Love New York“.  Lots of speculation has been thrown around about who he is and what he stands for, but few people really know about him.

Otunga is the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother.  Both of his parents were educators and he and his father were very close.  In an interview with De Novo Magazine he noted that he was devastated when his father passed away.   Otunga graduated from Harvard with a law degree and a Bachelor’s in cognitive science from Columbia University.

He rose to fame on the reality show “I Love New York” where he and other guys vied for New York’s love.  His name on the show was “Punk”.  Jennifer Hudson dedicated her Grammy Award performance to him for the strength he’s provided for her through the hard times that she has been going through.  You can read more about him on his Myspace page.

Video of the Week, February 6, 2009

Dancing is such a great expression of emotions, in my opinion, and it is great to see the different ways that people express themselves.  I stumbled on this video of different dance styles.  Let’s see how many you know.

Navin Engineer, London, United Kingdom

Navin Engineer

When Navin Engineer arrived in Britain in 1969, he was driven by a burning desire to work for himself, in contrast to his father, who worked for years in the Kenyan civil service. ‘I believed in working hard and wanted to be rewarded for what I did,’ he says. He founded Chemidex with his wife Varsha. ‘None of this would have been possible without her,’ he says. ‘She gave 100% support in running the shops and the pharmacies. You need a rock.’

They have two children, both of whom are studying medicine. Having sold its pharmacies, Chemidex is now a wholesaler of both branded and generic medicines, but not parallel-imported drugs. Engineer is in no doubt that growth in cheaper generic medicines has contributed to a more efficient healthcare market. ‘Wearing my hat when I am selling brands, I would say we need new molecules and new discoveries and we need to pump money into that,’ he says. ‘Fifty years ago, people were dying of tuberculosis and high cholesterol and we couldn’t transplant organs or, if we could, we didn’t have the drugs to make sure that rejection didn’t take place. But now we have drugs to do all these things and because of the budgetary pressures on the NHS, it has to look to save money.’

Navin Engineer’s story demonstrates the possibilities, even though his firm, Chemidex, is one of the few generic specialists that has not also expanded into parallel importing. He was sent to London in 1969 at the age of 16 to live with his aunt, with £75 in his pocket. He worked in the Wimpy burger restaurant on Oxford Street in the evening and at weekends to support himself through sixth form and then the London School of Pharmacy.

On graduation, he took a job as a pharmacist with Boots. Already feeling the company was ‘a little bit like the civil service’, he was infuriated by the demand of a visiting area manager for a cup of tea at a moment when he was busy dispensing prescriptions. ‘I made the cup of tea, but that night I went home and wrote a letter of resignation,’ says Engineer. ‘It was the best thing that ever happened to me.’

He set up his own pharmacy in Chertsey, Surrey, on the site of a former grocery store. He opened long hours, including Sundays, on the principle that ‘your body doesn’t decide to be ill when the shops are open’.

PillsHe expanded the business, even buying a former Boots store in Addlestone, near Weybridge. By 1999, he had 14 pharmacies and their value had increased after the government acted to prevent a free-for-all in the market by restricting the grant of new pharmacy licences. German group GEHE – one of three companies trying to consolidate the pharmacy market – came knocking. ‘They kept on increasing their offer until it was irresistible,’ he says. The final price was a cool £12 million.

Engineer chose to invest much of the proceeds in his much smaller wholesale business. He bought some small branded pharmaceuticals from big pharma companies, typically medicines turning over £2 million or less, and made instant savings by switching production to established factories in eastern Europe and the Far East.

Then he moved into generics, an area that requires specialist knowledge and a willingness to take calculated risks. Engineer reckons it costs between £200,000 and £250,000 and takes two or three years to develop a generic pharmaceutical. The first step is to identify the patent that is about to expire and then to make sure you do not infringe it as you develop a copy-cat version.

A patent lawyer alone can cost £50,000. ‘You have to make sure you are on firm ground,’ he says. ‘I would rather spend £50,000 doing that than get a writ from somebody saying: “You have infringed my patent”, and then you could get into a legal battle that could cost £500,000 or £1 million.’

There is also product insurance to be paid, plus the costs of proving the efficacy of the drug. ‘If it doesn’t work in the biostudy, then you have to start again,’ he says. ‘The regulatory authorities don’t have half-measures. The regulations are so controlled that generic products are of a very high standard.’

The hurdles may be high, but Chemidex now has 42 generics. They include treatments for gout and depression, an antibiotic for anthrax and even a generic version of the famous Prozac. They all contributed to profits last year of £9 million – not bad for a wholesaling business that was originally subordinate to Engineer’s retail pharmacies.

When Navin Engineer, now 51, arrived in Britain in 1969, he was driven by a burning desire to work for himself, in contrast to his father, who worked for years in the Kenyan civil service. ‘I believed in working hard and wanted to be rewarded for what I did,’ he says. He founded Chemidex with his wife Varsha. ‘None of this would have been possible without her,’ he says. ‘She gave 100% support in running the shops and the pharmacies. You need a rock.’

They have two children, both of whom are studying medicine. Having sold its pharmacies, Chemidex is now a wholesaler of both branded and generic medicines, but not parallel-imported drugs. Engineer is in no doubt that growth in cheaper generic medicines has contributed to a more efficient healthcare market. ‘Wearing my hat when I am selling brands, I would say we need new molecules and new discoveries and we need to pump money into that,’ he says. ‘Fifty years ago, people were dying of tuberculosis and high cholesterol and we couldn’t transplant organs or, if we could, we didn’t have the drugs to make sure that rejection didn’t take place. But now we have drugs to do all these things and because of the budgetary pressures on the NHS, it has to look to save money.’

Source

Ni Wakati

Michael Wanguhu is at it again.  He has hit on a great concept and is coming out with a great movie.  The movie, ‘Ni Wakati’, shows how the revolutionary youth of Africa, utilizing Hip-hop have turned the Ghetto’s into breeding ground of explosive talent in the art’s and the political sphere.

I love the fact that he ties the past and the present to lead a road to the future.  WithM1 from Dead Prez and Umi from POW, he leads the way to Africa and talks to founding fathers of the Black Panther movement.

They work in reuniting Africans and African Americans through the strongest bond that exists between the two today, hip hop. They all journey to revitalize their essence and purpose from the existing leaders of the Black Panther Pete  and Charlotte  O’neal, based in Arusha, Tanzania.  Keep an eye on this space for updates, coming soon.