• Prof Njoroge’s appointment letter dated August 25, 2023 indicates that his contract had been backdated to March 19, 2022 and will end on March 17, 2025.
• Prof Njoroge is the Chief Scientific Officer at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital and a former member of Board of Directors at KEMRI.
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A Kenyan university lecturer has been appointed a honorary professor in the United Kingdom.
Prof George Njoroge received his appointment as an honorary professor of Medical Education in the prestigious University of Manchester in United Kingdom on Friday.
"This is as a result of my accomplishment in discovery of new medicines for treatment of such diseases as Hepatitis C and Progeria. I was the first African to receive over 100 issued patents by US patent agency,” Njoroge told the Star by phone on Friday.
The elated scholar said his work had been extensively published.
“I'm currently giving back to my country by developing a Life Science Institution in Naivasha, Nakuru county. The latter institution will be highly involved in discovering medicines for life threatening disease,” Njoroge said.
Njoroge’s appointment letter dated August 25, 2023, signed by the University of Manchester Employment Officer Emma Beard, and seen by the Star indicated that his contract had been backdated to March 19, 2022 and will end on March 17, 2025.
“I'm delighted to confirm your honorary appointment, made in recognition of your contribution to the academic work of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.
"Your appointment is that of Honorary Professor in Medical Education within the School of Medical Sciences. This appointment is from 19 March 2022 to 17 March 2025,” the appointment letter reads in part.
“As mentioned above, the appointment is for an initial period until 17 March, 2025 and will be reviewed prior to the end of that period by your Head of School/Institute who will be responsible for deciding whether to renew the appointment for a further period. Further periods of appointment and renewal are based on contribution to the University,” the letter said.
Prof Njoroge is the Chief Scientific Officer at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) and a former member of Board of Directors at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) chaired Research and Innovation committee.
He is the current Chairman of Council at Daystar University and a former board member of KCA University (KCA).
Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow at Eli Lilly and Company and a former a Director in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories where he oversaw chemistry programme in infectious diseases platform.
Through his research leadership at Merck, an anti-HCV viral drug Victrelis was discovered.
The medicine was approved by FDA on May 13, 2011 as the first-in-class therapy for Hepatitis C treatment.
Prof Njoroge led his chemistry team in the discovery HCV protease inhibitor Narlaprevir that is marketed in Russia as Arlansa.
He has also worked in the oncology area in the discovery of therapeutic agents geared towards intervention of signal trunsduction process in proliferating cells, work that led to discovery of Sarasar, a repurposed and approved for treatment of Progeria.
A graduate of University of Nairobi, first class honors, he holds PhD in organic chemistry from Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Prof Njoroge is an author of 134 scientific publications and 104 USA granted patents.
He was inducted into "Hall of Fame" as a Hero of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society on August 19th 2012.
He is a recipient of numerous awards, including Emerald Award for Professional Achievement in Industry and Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for emerging therapies and Distinguished Alumni Award by Case Western Reserve University among others.
Prof Njoroge was also conferred with an Honorary Degree of Pharmaceutical Science by Mount Kenya University in 2014 and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by KCA University in 2021.
He was the founder of Centre of Africa’s Life Sciences (C.O.A.L.S), a premier institution that is being established in Naivasha with the primary goal of searching and developing novel medicines in the continent of Africa.