Senators will next week hold confirmation hearing for the nominee for the position of director general of Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (Rwanda FDA), The New Times has learnt. Dr Emile Bienvenue was on Wednesday named by cabinet as the new Rwanda FDA boss and is widely expected to replace Dr Charles Karangwa who has been acting in the position since 2018. The vetting will be carried out by the standing committee on Social Affairs and Human Rights, on Monday, August 16, before it presents its findings and recommendations to the senatorial plenary session on Tuesday, Olivier Mushimire, the Advisor to Senate President, confirmed to this publication. During senatorial confirmation hearings, members scrutinise the profile and suitability of the nominee before agreeing to back the nomination or not. Who is Emile Bienvenue? Bienvenue, who has been serving as Director for Innovation at University of Rwanda (since 2017), also served as Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research at UR. A holder of a Master’s degree in Pharmacology from University of Western Cape in South Africa and a PhD in Medical Science (Clinical Pharmacology) from University of Gothenburg in Sweden, Bienvenue was a senior lecturer at UR’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CHMS). He also previously served as executive secretary for University Research Office for six years (2002-2008) and External Examiner at Muhimbili University of Health & Allied Sciences in Tanzania until 2016. From July 2011-May 2013, Bienvenue was the Head of Medical Procurement Division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC). Since 2009-2020, he was the chairman of the Board of Directors of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) for which he has been a member since 2002. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors at Rwanda Military Hospital between 2012 and 2018. Bienvenue’s research focuses on therapy optimisation based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetics considerations, especially for HIV and TB co-infection. He is the country principal investigator for a 5-year EU/EDCTP funded research project (2018-2023), with a focus on Pharmacovigilance in East Africa. Bienvenue, who has so far graduated one PhD student and is currently supervising seven others, has also authored several papers in peer-reviewed international journals over the past seven years. He’s also a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals. An expert in hospital drug and therapeutic committees (DTCs), he also provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in 2006 in formulating the first editions of the Standard Treatment Guidelines and Drug Formulary. Bienvenue completed a research attachment at McGill University in Canada (2008), where he contributed to the project, The alternative modelling of Intellectual Property Systems in Biotechnology Innovation. He’s also currently the country principal researcher for StArfrica - Startup Germany-Africa, a 4-year project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs (2020-2024). Bienvenue’s nomination to the helm of Rwanda FDA comes at a time Rwanda is in advanced stages to start manufacturing Covid vaccines. Rwanda FDA was established in 2018 with a mandate to protect public health through regulation of human and veterinary medicines, vaccines and other biological products, processed foods, poisons, medicated cosmetics, medical devices, household chemical substances, tobacco and tobacco products.
