A renowned laboratory physician, Dr. Modupe Kuti, has called for urgent national action to advance personalised medicine in Nigeria, stressing the need to build the necessary infrastructure, formulate enabling policies, and foster strategic partnerships that will make individualised healthcare a reality in the country.
Kuti made the call during a recent SYNLAB Nigeria public health webinar, themed “Personalised Medicine: The Future of Healthcare,”which forms part of the company’s quarterly health education series.
The event was moderated by Dr. Afolabi Obe, Chief Medical Officer, SYNLAB Nigeria.
In his presentation, Kuti explained that personalised medicine involves tailoring medical treatment to a person’s genetic profile, lifestyle, and environment, an approach that shifts healthcare from one-size-fits-all to precision-based outcomes.
“This approach allows medical practitioners to treat people, not just diseases. It enables better disease prediction, prevention, and treatment outcomes.”
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He traced the origins of personalised medicine to the Human Genome Project and emphasized how advances in genomics have laid the foundation for precision healthcare.
He particularly highlighted pharmacogenomics—the study of how genes affect a person’s response to drugs—as a critical area.
“Up to 60 percent of individuals respond differently to the same medication. This is not just an academic concern. “Pharmacogenetic screening can save lives and significantly improve the quality of care,” he stressed.
He also pointed to the growing role of personalised medicine in oncology, where gene-based therapies and companion diagnostics are helping to match patients with the most effective treatments.
Continuing, he noted how genetic insights are now being used in everyday health decisions—such as how individuals metabolize caffeine or respond to dietary fats and sugars.
Despite the promise, Kuti acknowledged several systemic barriers to the implementation of personalised medicine in Nigeria. These include high costs, inadequate infrastructure, low public and professional awareness, and the glaring underrepresentation of African genetic data in global databases.
