During her three years working as a pharmacist in Nigeria, Omotayo Olaoye appreciated the one-on-ones with her clients. It was during those moments that they would tell her of adverse reactions to new medications. While she and her colleagues would record them in what they called the “yellow form,” the young pharmacist knew that data from just one community was far from representative.
To really understand how well a medication was working, she needed data from thousands of patients. But even when she found information from larger datasets of drug interactions, they were typically taken from high-income countries and did not provide adequate information on more local tropical diseases.
“We had no idea about the safety and effectiveness at the population level.”
That curiosity about the safety of medications once they’ve been released onto the market fuels the work of Olaoye. The PhD candidate in pharmacoepidemiology has embarked on a four-year study that assesses the effects of drugs that alleviate pain and other symptoms associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She is poring over studies to look at changes in prescribing habits, and the potential for these drugs to increase the risks associated with COPD, the third leading cause of death globally.Â
Olaoye has been recognized with a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. She is one of 16 doctoral and postdoctoral students at ±«ÓăÖ±˛Ą to be given the prize, which is worth up to $50,000 per year for three years.
The seeds of her pharmacoepidemiology career were planted when Olaoye was seven and would be in and out of the hospital with recurring bouts of malaria.
“The doctors would place me on new antimalarial medications that had come on the market because they felt I might be developing some resistance,” she recounted. “So, I would sometimes take the drug leaflets and begin to read about the medication. I had no idea I was beginning to develop an interest in medications.”
When she was in high school and it was time to look ahead to a career, she just knew that she wanted to study pharmacy.
She would eventually obtain her undergrad in pharmacy and then begin to work at a community and then hospital pharmacy. It was during those years that this inherent need to see the big-picture effects of medication got her in touch with the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association.
She began an internship in global antimicrobial resistance and then went on to work as a research and projects officer for a three-year period with the organization. Her work involved supporting the development and implementation of programs to improve antimicrobial stewardship in resource-constrained settings, collaborating with both African and UK partners.
“It made me very much interested in research. So, while I was doing this, I decided I wanted to pursue a master's degree, but not a degree in pharmacy. Because my work with this organization involved working with global health agencies, I decided to do a master's degree in public health.”
Olaoye received a Commonwealth Scholarship and graduated with a Masters in Public Health degree from the University of Glasgow. She went on to work with the Scottish government on antimicrobial resistance projects.
She then heard that ±«ÓăÖ±˛Ą had a stand-out doctoral program in pharmacoepidemiology, applied and got in.
Her Vanier funding began in September 2024. During the next three years, she will look into the use and safety of drugs that could significantly pose a threat to COPD patients. Professors Dr. Christel Renoux (MSc’06) and Samy Suissa (BSc’76, MSc’77) are her supervisors.Â
“I'm going to explore as much as I can to look at age group, biological sex, doses and alternatives. My study will try to give physicians as much information as they might need to guide their prescribing.”
That complex research has come a long way from her recording reactions in that pharmacy’s yellow form, but the instincts that led her to the keep an eye on the safety of medicines appear as keen as ever.