By Andrew Irumba
NBS Television senior news anchor and show host Mildred Tuhaise, together with her camera crew both in the field and at the Next Media Park Command Center were on Tuesday morning left bamboozled after the now most thought after professor Patrick Engeu Ogwang, the man behind the manufacture of covidex ‘medicine’ snabbed their interview just few minutes to kick off time!
Without giving specific reasons and much details, professor’s P/A only known as Rebecca reportedly came and broke the bad news to the crew who had already set their cameras rolling in his own sukuma week and Doodo gardens, also improvised as compound, located in Mpererwe, Kla, that the workholic professor had received a call from ‘above’ who directed him not to take the interview.
“I’m very sorry to be telling you this but again I have to. The professor will not be taking the interview as per directive from ‘above,'” revealed his P/A.
You may need to remember that, apart from the pingpong that has been sorrounding the efficacy and approval of the ‘drug’ by NDA, another controversy is slowly but steadily brewing around the ownership of the drug with Mbarara University Of Science & Technology (MUST) claiming ownership on one side and Jena Herbals Uganda Limited, a company owned by professor Ogwang, a lecturer at the same university on the other.
Meanwhile, in an interview with journalists yesterday, Dr Warren Naamara, the chairman of Mbarara University of Science and Technology Council said they would not lose ownership of the product.
He, however, said the university is open to sharing the ownership of Covidex with Prof Patrick Ogwang’s Jena Herbals Uganda Limited.
“The Intellectual Property Right is co-owned by the principal investigator (product developer) and the institution in which they work. [Prof] Ogwang should be supported to do a smart clinical trial and if there is an observation of [serious side] effects, the medicine should be stopped all the way,” Dr Naamara said yesterday.
Meanwhile, this controversy has since raised many questions in the public around the veracity of the contradictory claims and could potentially affect the production, distribution, use and ultimately cause concerns of public safety as the question of quality controls and standards will become inevitable.
From a legal perspective however, the one key issue revolves around the question of the Intellectual Property (IP) protection that each of the aforementioned parties may have or enjoy in relation to the ‘invention’.
Our job here at Spy Uganda is to bring you all the news around this as it unfolds….watch the space…..
