Professor Indres Moodley (75) died on Saturday after taking ill on Friday. He was the brother of the late lawyer Monty Moodley of Isipingo.
He was a student at Salisbury Island and rose to become a Lecturer in the Science Faculty which cover Pharmacy and Science programs.
In the so-called “ESSOP TRIAL” (June – Nov 1972) – Indres (then 27) alongside Mohammed Salim Essop (22 – who was earlier detained with Ahmed Timol), Amina Desai (52) , and Yusuf Hassem Essack (21) were indicted under the main charge under the Terrorism Act and on three alternative charges under the Suppression of Communism Act.
He was represented by Advocate Ismail Mohamed (later to be Judge-President of the Constitutional Court). He was sentenced to 5 years. He appealed against his conviction and sentences. His appeal were upheld by the Appellate Division in Bloemfontein, on 28 September, 1973.
Indres went to London – where he pursued further a Masters and a Doctorate at University College London (UCL).
He returned in the early 1990’s to become Chair and Head of Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology at WITS Medical School for 5 years; and thereafter became the Director of Health Economics at the Pharmacia Corporation, South Africa.
In the early 2000’s, he joined the University of Natal’s (later UKZN) Medical School as Professor of Public Health as well as the Director of the Health Outcomes Research Unit in the Department of Public Health at the NR Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN.
His contribution to teaching and research is as follows:
1. Education and training
He is involved in the teaching and examination of the module in Health Economics and Healthcare Financing for MPH students. He also supervises first year students of the module “Making a Difference”. He is also guest lecturer in Healthcare Financing for the SIT Programme funded by USAID.
2. Research and development
He contributes to research support (protocol development and conducting research) for MPH. and Ph.D students and Registrars in Health Economics and Health Economics Research.
He was involved in a variety of projects in health systems with the National Department of Health, also in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal province where he has conducted analyses on costs various models of care, health services in the public sector for tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, district health systems and the National Health Insurance. He has developed expertise in conducting an analysis for the national health accounts. He has a prolific Research record.
3. Academic Contribution:
He is well known both nationally and internationally for his contributions to clinical, scientific and health related research. He has served on statutory bodies such as the South African Pharmacy Council and the Minister of Health’s Pharmaceutical Pricing Committee. He is also special advisor to WHO/TDR on the application of health related research to improve equity and access to healthcare. He was appointed to the Board of the Medical Research Council (MRC). He works in collaboration with a number of research Centres such as the Health Economics Unit at UCT and the Africa Centre. He works in consultation with the Departments of Health, Trade and Industry and Science and Technology where he is involved in fostering the biomedical collaboration of traditional practitioners with the Allopathic health systems. He has been awarded a number of national and provincial tenders in the public healthcare sector and is consulted by a number of pharmaceutical companies and other institutions.
Additional Interests:
• Respiratory Pharmacology and Medicine
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Natural Product Chemistry and Pharmacology
