The site was visited this Thursday by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, after a journey that included the faculties of Medicine, Economics and Natural Sciences of the Agostinho Neto University (UAN).
Pharmacognosy is the scientific study of drugs (substances used in medicines) and active ingredients of plant or animal origin. It is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to understanding the nature, obtaining, analyzing and using natural products for therapeutic purposes.
Esperança da Costa explained that the creation of the laboratory is a response to the difficulties faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, linked to access to medicines and the development of a pharmaceutical industry in Angola.
"It is a great challenge, but we will all work to ensure that the production of medicines in the country actually becomes a reality", he acknowledged, adding that a set of other measures are already underway to make the development of this research possible, such as regulation, through the Law on Biomedical Research.
All these measures, he said, contribute to creating an environment that facilitates the development of this research and the full functioning of the medicinal plant laboratory.
On the occasion, the Vice President of the Republic said that her presence at the Luanda Science and Technology Park served to assess the degree of development of the work in terms of construction and equipment, with a view to intervening to correct some fundamental details, if necessary.
According to the government official, the park, to be completed at the end of this year, will have a focus on young people, who will have the opportunity to develop their research, innovation, business creation and start-up projects, and later work in the field of entrepreneurship.
Vice-President visits Agostinho Neto University
During the visit to the three institutions of the Agostinho Neto University (UAN), Esperança da Costa, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Alice Almeida, the Rector of the UAN, Pedro Magalhães, and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Maria Monteiro, learned about the functioning of the Genetics, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Anatomy laboratories, and held a consultation meeting, where she was informed about the concerns of the Higher Education institution.
The visit was also attended by the Secretary of State for Public Works, Manuel Morales de Abril, and the Vice-Governor of Luanda for Technical Area and Infrastructure, Calunga Quissanga.
At the Faculty of Economics, the minister visited the Computer Science and Supervised Internships Laboratory, the departments, and also held a consultation meeting.
At the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Esperança da Costa took a guided tour of the Geology Museum, the laboratories of Mineralogy and Macroscopic Petrology, Thin Sections, Micropaleontology, Geology, X-ray Florescence, Physics and Organic Chemistry.
The Vice-President also visited the Ecology, Animal Biology, Masters and Environment, Cellular Biology rooms, among other aspects of the institution.
In statements to the press, he said that faculties experience the same needs, fundamentally for laboratory infrastructures suitable for the courses that are administered, for qualified staff to support teaching, and for research that is necessary for the constant improvement of the quality of teaching.
In this sense, he said there was a need to strengthen institutional capacity in all medical schools in the country.
The need for laboratory infrastructure at the Faculty of Medicine of Agostinho University, in particular, will be resolved with the start of operations of the University Hospital, under construction in the space adjacent to the institution.
In the case of the faculties of Economics and Sciences, Esperança da Costa said that they will be transferred to the University Campus, as soon as the works are finished, for which there is already financial availability.
In turn, the rector of UAN, Pedro Magalhães, considered the visit an act of renewal of hope for Higher Education institutions and a demonstration of the Government's concern with training staff and creating conditions for the university.
"The vice-president visited three organizational units of our university and had the opportunity to get in touch with the reality of each organizational unit, listened to the managers of the three organizational units and also left precise recommendations, mainly for some issues that can have an immediate solution", he summarized.
Agostinho Neto University has ten organizational units and offers more than 40 undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
