A Makerere University pharmacy lecturer has done something Uganda’s pharmaceutical sector has been waiting for someone to do for a long time — taken traditional plant knowledge, put it through rigorous science, and come out the other side with a product the National Drug Authority has formally approved.
Dr. Lutoti Stephen, a lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy at Makerere University’s College of Health Sciences, has unveiled ELOCID — a locally manufactured herbal formulation targeting peptic ulcers and gastric disorders, produced by Eliophram Uganda Limited and now carrying full NDA approval.
It is not a repackaged import. It is not a foreign formula with a Ugandan label. It was conceived here, researched here, manufactured here, and approved here. For a country that imports the overwhelming majority of its pharmaceutical products, that distinction matters enormously.
ELOCID is a triple-therapy herbal formulation — meaning it combines three active plant extracts into a single treatment, mirroring the multi-agent approach used in conventional ulcer treatment protocols. The three plants at its core are Aspilia africana, Hoslundia opposita, and Bidens pilosa.
None of these are obscure discoveries. All three have deep roots in traditional African medicine and have attracted growing scientific attention for their therapeutic properties. Research has shown that Hoslundia opposita demonstrates activity against Helicobacter pylori — the bacteria most commonly associated with peptic ulcers. Bidens pilosa has been widely cited in ethnomedicinal literature across East and West Africa for gastrointestinal applications. Hoslundia opposita and Aspilia species have also been documented in combination for their wound-healing properties, with leaf preparations recorded in Ugandan traditional medicine.
What Dr. Lutoti did was take what traditional healers have known for generations, standardise it, validate it scientifically, and build it into a formulation that can be prescribed, dispensed, and trusted within the formal healthcare system.
Dr. Lutoti is a pharmacist with a special interest in natural products research, academia, pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution, health systems research, and regulatory affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Makerere, a Postgraduate Diploma in Pharmaceutical Product Management, and a Master’s degree, and is currently a PhD Fellow.
His academic work has not been purely theoretical. He is a co-author of published research on the safety and efficacy of medicinal plants used to manufacture herbal products with regulatory approval in Uganda — research that directly fed into the kind of evidence base needed to bring a product like ELOCID through the NDA approval process.
The Ministry of Health recognised him as Pharmacist of the Year in both 2021 and 2022 — two consecutive awards that predate ELOCID’s public launch. The drug is the product of someone who had already been doing the work long before anyone was watching.
Beyond ELOCID, Dr. Lutoti serves as Secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda, making him one of the most active voices in shaping Uganda’s pharmaceutical regulatory landscape — including his role in defending the new National Drug and Health Products Authority Bill, which represents the most significant overhaul of Uganda’s pharmaceutical regulations in over 30 years.
Getting a herbal product approved in Uganda is not a simple process. The National Drug Authority applies the same evaluative rigour to herbal medicines as it does to conventional pharmaceuticals — assessing safety, quality, and efficacy before granting approval. Most herbal preparations in Uganda never make it through that process, which is why they remain at the community level: trusted by users but unrecognised by the formal health system.
A new locally developed treatment for ulcers has been cleared by the National Drug Authority, a move that could reshape how the condition is managed in Uganda. ELOCID’s approval means it can now be formally stocked in pharmacies, prescribed by healthcare workers, and covered under health schemes in a way that unlicensed herbal preparations cannot.
Peptic ulcers are among the most common gastrointestinal conditions in Uganda, driven by H. pylori infection rates that are significantly higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in the global north, compounded by diet, stress, and limited access to consistent treatment. Conventional triple therapy — typically combining a proton pump inhibitor with two antibiotics — is effective but can be expensive and difficult to maintain as a complete course.
A locally manufactured, plant-based alternative that has cleared regulatory approval gives clinicians and patients another option. If it can be produced at accessible price points, it could meaningfully expand treatment reach in settings where imported pharmaceutical regimens remain out of reach.
For Makerere’s pharmacy students, the significance of this moment goes beyond the product itself. One of their own lecturers has walked the full journey — from research question to approved, market-ready medicine. That is the path every pharmacy student is taught to aspire to. Dr. Lutoti has actually walked it.
