Latest news with #Bediako
New Indian Express
03-06-2025
- New Indian Express
Nigerian man arrested with narcotics worth Rs 1.25 crore
Bediako's drug links in India date back to 2013, when he entered the country on a medical visa using a fake identity. Though the visa was for treatment in Bengaluru, he headed to Goa, where he joined Romey in drug peddling. Over the years, Bediako is suspected to have trafficked drugs worth over `2 crore, earning commissions of about `40 lakh. After returning to Nigeria in 2021, Bediako re-entered India twice, once in December 2023 under a new identity, and again in January 2025 using a forged Ghanaian passport. Each time, he managed to evade authorities. On Romey's instructions, Bediako shifted to Hyderabad to expand their drug network. Officials said he was trying to build a local distribution chain by recruiting peddlers and targeting new consumers. Investigations revealed that Bediako operated from luxury villas in Goa and laundered proceeds through Indian hawala agents and Nigerian associates.
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘The field of human ancestry is rife with racism': pioneering project to build cancer database in Africa
When Yaw Bediako lost his father to liver cancer, it set the Ghanaian immunologist on a journey to know more about the disease. He quickly realised the burden of cancer in Africa was much greater than he had thought – accounting for about 700,000 deaths every year – and that very few scientific papers about the disease on the continent were available. 'I realised that cancer is this huge disease in Africa that doesn't really get much research attention,' he says. 'But it's not just an African problem, it's global … It stands out as a problem that does not distinguish between geographies or socioeconomic class.' Fifteen years after his father's death, Bediako is leading Yemaachi Biotech, a company he co-founded in 2020 in Ghana's capital, Accra, dedicated to building the largest, and possibly the first, database of genetic and clinical information in Africa from up to 7,500 cancer patients. Its employees are young, most in their mid- to late-20s, and drawn from across the continent. More than half of the workforce is female. The African Cancer Atlas will provide insights into cancer in African populations, invaluable for drug discoveries and treatment research, while helping to address disparities in cancer outcomes. It will be available for free to African researchers. Last month, the Swiss pharmaceutical multinational Roche announced it would back the project with funding and technical support. The initiative will include a subset of data on children. An estimated 85% of paediatric cancers occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with survival rates estimated to be 30%, compared with 80% among children living in high-income countries. Less than 2% of human genomes (which contain all of people's genetic information) analysed so far have been those of Africans, despite the continent comprising 17% of the world's population and possessing the most diverse genomes. This disparity has hindered global understanding of cancer and its treatment, particularly for African populations. Dr Patrick Kafui Akakpo, a pathologist at the University of Cape Coast teaching hospital who has a particular interest in breast cancer, is only too aware of this. In Ghana, women are susceptible to triple-negative breast cancer, a fast-growing and aggressive type that is hard to treat. 'We are aware that the African genome is not as well-studied as the European one,' he says. 'We have very few clinical trials going on and most of them are in infectious diseases and not cancer. It means that we don't have the experience or data to support the efficacy of drugs in our people.' Bediako, a Ghanaian-Briton who studied in the US, believes the paucity of Africa's genomic data is partly down to structural inequalities. 'The field of human ancestry is rife with racism and with discrimination,' he says. 'You cannot overlook those as possible reasons why certain groups have been understudied.' With so little data for non-European populations, Bediako adds, drugs have been developed that are not as effective for all people. But the problem transcends ethnicity, he says. 'You can find Europeans whose genomes will have certain traits that are more common in Africans,' he points out. 'So by being more inclusive in the genomes we study, we will have the opportunity to develop solutions.' Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Pharmaceutical companies are keen to see scientific research into genetic diversity in Africa. In 2021, GSK and Novartis announced they would collaborate on research exploring links between genetic diversity and African patients' response to malaria and tuberculosis drugs. And in 2023, four pharma companies donated $20m (£15m) to sequence 500,000 African and African American genomes. Bediako is looking to them to fund more of the expensive work at Yemaachi Biotech, albeit with some trepidation. 'I'm not naive,' he says. 'We all know the stories of when things have not gone well or have not been in the best interest of people, but I also believe there are good people who work in big pharma companies and we would not have any drugs if it weren't for them.' At present, funding is mostly from investors – in and outside Africa – as well as grants and philanthropy. Bediako's aim for Yemaachi Biotech is to be able to fund more of the work through commercial partnerships. That brings with it ethical issues around the use of patients' data for financial gain. Aida Manu, the company's director of operations, says: 'We realise we have to do something. It's very complicated. The participants are vulnerable because they have an illness we are interested in and many are vulnerable economically. It's still early days but we make it clear we are looking to find a way to have this community benefit from the research coming out.' The team has to work hard to convince foreign investors. 'We call it the Africa tax, or the black tax,' says David Hutchful, a co-founder of the company and its chief technology officer. 'It's not overt but it comes through when investors ask certain questions which sometimes show they have little working knowledge of Africa.' He says, as an example, that people have asked him whether there's enough electricity to power the freezers for samples. Despite the challenges, the team is excited both about potential drug breakthroughs and breaking stereotypes. 'My hope with this company beyond all the science and work we do is to portray the Africa I know now exists, that I love and want to contribute to,' says Bediako. 'My dream is one day there will be drugs used to treat cancer around the world that will be derived from knowledge that was generated from this continent – and that shows Africa has something to offer the world.'
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minnesota senator mistakenly listed as board member of nonprofit seeking $15 million grant
The Minnesota Capitol. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer. A small Minneapolis nonprofit that would receive $15 million under a proposed bill at the Legislature says it made a mistake by listing Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, as a board member on its tax filings. A DFL Senate spokesman said Mohamed was never a board member of WE WIN Institute, although a Zaynab Mohammad is listed on the organization's most recently available tax filing for 2023. The Senate spokesman shared a statement from the organization's executive director Titilayo Bediako apologizing for the confusion. The organization asked Mohamed to serve on the board, but she declined. Mohamed's name was included on the tax filing — and spelled incorrectly — by mistake and the organization said it is taking steps to amend the filing to remove her name, according to Bediako's statement. Bediako did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The connection between Mohamed and the organization was first reported by the conservative website Minnesota Free State using an online database of government appropriations to nonprofits called Data Republican. That's when Mohamed became aware she was listed on the organization's 990 and asked to be removed, according to a statement shared by a spokesperson. WE WIN Institute is seeking $15 million under a bill (SF1140) authored by Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, to renovate its facilities and buy additional property in Minneapolis 'for a meeting and gathering space to work with and support community-based organization partnerships.' The organization provides 'academic, social, and culturally specific programming and food services for Black students in the city of Minneapolis,' according to the bill. That appropriation would dwarf the small nonprofit's annual budget, which was just $756,272 in 2023. A spokesman said Fateh plans to pull the bill. State agencies typically award grants to organizations after performing background checks and analyzing proposals, but state lawmakers also can direct funds to specific groups through 'legislatively named grants.' WE WIN Institute received $3.5 million from the Legislature in 2024 through a bill authored by Fateh as part of a $1.1 billion bonanza of such legislatively named grants. Legislators funneling taxpayer dollars to specific organizations has raised concerns about wasteful spending and the potential for fraud; the Office of the Legislative Auditor has urged lawmakers to stop the practice.
