Plans announced for a Rwanda Society of Pharmacology

Plans were announced for the launch of a Rwanda Society of Pharmacology at the close of the first International Symposium on Medicines and Patient Safety held in Kigali 5-6 November.

The Symposium was attended by over 170 delegates and speakers from 6 countries (Rwanda, South Africa, Moroccoo, South Africa, UK and USA). who participated in an International Symposium on Medicines and Patient Safety was held in Kigali, Rwanda at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) on Wednesday 5th November 2014, followed on 6^th November 2014 by an international videoconference on Prescribing Skills with Professor Simon Maxwell and on Pharmacovigilance with Professor Rita Benabdalleh from the WHO co-ordinating centre in Rabat, Morocco. The meeting included talks on medicines and communicable and non-communicable diseases by national and international clinical and policy experts from Rwanda, South Africa, USA and the UK.

The Symposium was held in partnership with Pharmacology for Africa, a

consortium of 18 Sub-Saharan countries supported by the International Union of Pharmacology, and led by Professor Douglas Oliver and Professor Christiaan Brink, from South Africa, both of whom spoke at the meeting. The 3 major themes of the symposium were: educating health professionals in safe and effective use of medicines; regulating drugs, including pharmacovigilance and quality of medicines, reducing harm from high risk medicines and in patients with high risk conditions.

Outcomes of the Symposium included plans to launch the first Rwandan Pharmacology Society, publication of selected reviews and commentaries in the international journal Health Policy and Technology, and plans for a Second International Symposium on Medicines and Patient Safety in June 2015, themes to include Improving Prescribing Skills and Rational Guidelines for Antibiotics.

Speakers discussed ways to reduce risk from medicines for treating children and expectant mothers, preventing disorders of the heart and stroke, and for treating cancer and kidney disease. There were also round table discussions not only on prescribed medicines, but also on the risks of over-the-counter and traditional medicines.

Co-organizer and Pharmacist Dr Kayumba said: “The Symposium was timely in building on strategy in Rwanda on pharmacovigilance and on developing our undergraduate and postgraduate educational systems for good practice in use of medicines.”

Co-organizer and Physician Dr Musabeyezu added: “The Symposium provided important updates for doctors, pharmacists and nurses from Referrral and District Hospitals from throughout Rwanda on reducing risk of harm from high risk medicines often used for high risk diseases”. 

Co-organizer and Clinical Pharmacologist Professor Singer said: "Medicines have powerful effects to help patients. However medicines also have the potential to cause powerful harmful effects. Education on how to ensure safe and effective use of medicines is therefore vitally important for patients and health services."

Pharmacology of Africa President Professor Douglas Oliver said: “Partnership with Pharmacology for Africa brings important opportunities to improve patient health and safety through engaging with a wide range of international experts in education, training, clinical practice and research aimed at best practice in use of medicines."

The symposium was supported by the World Health Organisation, Pharmacology for Africa, the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Partners in Health, the Rwanda Social Security Board,  the University of Rwanda College of Medicine and Health Sciences, and by unrestricted educational grants by GSK and Roche.

Information for Editors

For further information, including to arrange an interview with the organisers email ISMPS2014@gmail.com.

Symposium website

Symposium program

Symposium National and International Advisory Board

Spotlight on excellent EACPT summer cardiovascular focus meeting 3-5 July in Holland

You are still in time to register for 2014 EACPT Focus Meeting on 'Drugs to Fight Cardiovascular Damage' from organised by the the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics [EACPT] .

Registration  - with a preferential accommodation rate - is available through the Focus Meeting website.

The 2014 EACPT Focus Meeting takes place from July 3rd - 5th at the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Reasons to come to this outstanding meeting

• excellent tradition of EACPT in providing outstanding meetings for young and senior clinicians and researchers
• great opportunities for networking with your peers and senior members of the international clinical pharmacology community
• easy access to senior researchers on the international speaker faculty 
• opportunity to have first hand news on major developments for EACPT
• meet Dr Richard Shader, the editor of the EACPT's Official Journal - Clinical Therapeutics 
• expert session from Dr Shader on how to publish

In addition to state-of-the-art lectures from international cardiovascular experts, over 60 delegate abstracts are due be presented  from around the world. The top 5 ranked abstracts will be provided with free registration. All abstracts presented at the meeting will be published in Clinical Therapeutics, the peer-reviewed Official Journal of the EACPT. 

This focus meeting follows on from the highly rated  EACPT international summer school in 2013 in Edinburgh.

The 2014 EACPT Focus Meeting will provide you with the opportunity to attend state of the art lectures from leading professionals and researchers, including hands-on workshops. 

Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen 

Topics include ultrasound imaging of vascular injury (including a hands-on workshop), the microbiome and inflammation in the metabolic syndrome, targeting inflammation to prevent and treat atherosclerosis, diagnosis and therapy of adrenal hypertension, and protection against ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

This EACPT Cardiovascular Focus Meeting is of interest to clinical pharmacologists, pharmacologists, and other young scientists and clinicians interested in drug treatment of cardiovascular disease. 

You can listen here to podcasts with international delegates at the last EACPT summer meeting in Edinburgh in 2013.

See the Scientific Programme is now online on the Focus Meeting website. 

Visit the Clinical Therapeutics website.

Medicine and Kazakhstan

In the Western Kazakhstan regional capital city Aktobe this week with speakers on medical research from Switzerland, Italy Azerbaijan and Russia, joining local researchers for a  well-organised conference and series of Masterclasses for staff and students, hosted by Rector Bekmukhambetov. First a direct flight from London for an overnight stay in the old capital Almaty, with its snow-covered mountains. A Canadian captain provided the tannoy welcome on a new jet for the transfer to Aktobe, 2000km to the East. Aktobe was emerging from a winter of

White wagtail in central Aktobe

temperatures down to -35 deg C, still mounds of snow and ice in the shadows, a dusty breeze from the Steppe, buds  on the trees, and sparrows and white wagtails enjoying warm April sun.  

The Medical School in Aktobe, one of 5 in the country, has benefited from major recent investment in local hospitals and supporting equipment. Primary

Delegates at a Therapeutics Masterclass

Coronary Intervention for relevant acute coronary syndromes, complemented by acute thromobolysis for patients in transit from remote areas, mandatory HPV immunisation from the age of 13, outstanding neonatal intensive care provision, and advanced rehabilitation facilities, are examples of many areas of internationally competitive medical provision and practice.

Medical student presenters. Moderators seated from left: S Balmagambetova, D Singer, A Aliev

Research questions under discussion this week have included how Kazakhstan can meet the challenges and  medical consequences of the international epidemic of obesity, coping with the environmental consequences of the mineral and fossil fuel exploitation that is helping to fund the dramatic economic expansion in the country, neuropsychology in childhood, and the epidemiology and pathology of reproduction, of a range of cancers, and common and serious diseases of the cardiovascular system, the eye, and brain. External speakers discussed a range of internationally relevant topics, including advances in prion disease, new methods for early discovery of new beneficial and harmful targets for drugs, dealing with Multi-Drug Resistant tuberculosis, and new ultrastructural methods for identifying ageing in human oocytes.

Addressing these important questions for this huge and sparsely populated country - around 17

Local and international faculty at the Conference

million inhabitants in an area the size of Western Europe - will be further enabled with continued financial support made possible by the valuable natural resources in Kazakhstan,  and a new and expanding graduate researcher programme, strengthened by an increasing range of international academic research collaborations. 

There are major opportunities for further strengthening of clinical academic systems from increasing partnerships with international health-related organisations and new opportunities for external partnerships with agencies involved in drug regulation, in developing clinical management guidelines, and in other important aspects of health policy.

Drugs and Pharma: a matter of trust?

Medicines have significant costs, both financial and in terms of serious adverse effects. Treatment

should therefore only be prescribed and continued when the benefit outweighs the risk. This presupposes that health professionals, patients, and policymakers have trustworthy evidence to support clinical use of medicines.

It is vital that research on medicines is objective in order to show whether proposed treatments are effective for improving clinically meaningful outcomes for patients, how they compare to existing remedies, and the relative and absolute cost implications of adopting the treatment.

In his seductive polemic Bad Pharma, psychiatrist and 'Bad Science' Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre raises major concerns about the quality of evidence on the efficacy and safety of specific drugs and classes of treatment in clinical use. His book has added to recent public concern about medicines, their safety, and the probity of pharmaceutical companies.

This background concern for the public has been inspired both by works of fiction, for example the film Side Effects, set within a corrupted psychotherapeutic sector, and John Le Carre's African novel The Constant Gardener, which raises important questions about the ethics of clinical research on anti-infective agents in developing countries.

And by a series of very large fines imposed on major pharmaceutical companies for a wide range of reported major errors of omission and commission, including concealed data on safety, and encouragement of doctors to prescribe off-licence, i.e. to patient groups for whom there is no or insufficient evidence on effectiveness or safety of medicines.

See more in reviews in the Reinvention Journal

Ben Goldacre Bad Pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients.
London: Fourth Estate. Reprinted with edits: February 5, 2013 | ISBN-10: 0865478007 | ISBN-13: 978-0865478008

Young pharmacologists from 5 continents at EACPT Clinical Pharmacology Summer School

Over 120 young and senior pharmacologists from 5 continents attended the EACPT Summer School in Edinburgh 4-6 July: half the young clinicians and researchers from the UK and half from around the world: continental Europe, from Estonia and Lithuania to Denmark and Spain, 16 from China, others from Australia and elsewhere. 

Hear the podcast from delegates at the EACPT Summer School from 6 European countries talking about why they came and how useful they found the EACPT Summer School in Edinburgh: Eglė Svitojūtė, Lithuania; Morten Rix Hansen, Odense, Denmark; Aurelija Noreikaite, Lithuania; Gareth Barnes, London, UK; Alexandra Androu, Romania; Madli Pintson, Tartu, Estonia; Julia Daragrjati, Padua, Italy.

Blogs from delegates from 8 countries

EACPT Summer Schools consist of keynote presentations and workshops on all aspects of clinical pharmacology by invited expert speakers, poster presentations, and social events. There is a strong interactive element and ample opportunity for delegates to network with speakers. 

See also information on the 11th EACPT Congress in Geneva: 28th - 31st August, 20

Launch of Pocket Prescriber 2013

The 6th edition of the Pocket Prescriber I co-edit with psychiatrist Tim Nicholson has just been launched.

Our aim is to provide core information to junior doctors, nurse and pharmacist prescribers and medical students and other health professional students interested in drugs and prescribing.
As in previous editions, there is a listing of ~500 of the most commonly used medicines, informed by advice from  experts in the wide range of therapeutic disciplines reflecting current medical practice in assessing and treating common medical problems from infection to hypertension and alleviating pain.

We also include national guidelines aimed at improving safety and effectiveness in prescribing, and advice on management of medical emergencies, supported by guidelines from national and international professional societies, NICE guidelines and Formulary updates.

Over 110,000 copies of the Pocket Prescriber have entered national and international circulation since the first edition was published in 2004.

Since 2010, the Pocket Prescriber has been an annually updated source of prescribing advice.

The Pocket Prescriber is published as a convenient sized small book. The new 2013 edition will shortly also be published as an app for smartphones, laptops and desktop computers.

Suggestions for additional content are very welcome.

New EU black triangle scheme for medicinal products

There are several key stages in use of medicines and vaccines in clinical practice when reporting on clinical experience of side effects and suspected adverse effects is particularly important.

In addition to a duty to report any serious adverse effect, times to be particularly vigilant include when a medicine has just been launched; when indications for use are changed – ie new patient groups are exposed to the medicine; special patient populations for whom experience of a medicine may be limited – e.g. children; new combinations with the treatment, with which unexpected drug interactions may occur. 

The European Medicines Agency [EMA] notes these additional categories: “ it contains a new active substance authorised in the EU after 1 January 2011; it is a biological medicine, such as a vaccine or a medicine derived from plasma (blood), for which there is limited post-marketing experience; it has been given a conditional approval (where the company that markets the medicine must provide more data about it) or approved under exceptional circumstances (where there are specific reasons why the company cannot provide a comprehensive set of data); the company that markets the medicine is required to carry out additional studies, for instance, to provide more data on long-term use of the medicine or on a rare side effect seen during clinical trials.”

A Black Triangle logo has been used in the UK for many years “to signify medicines that are subject to intensive monitoring" [MHRA]. This inverted Black Triangle logo will now be used in all EU Member States, with a list of 'Black Triangle' medicines and vaccines agreed Europe-wide, the first version released in April 2013. The Black Triangle will start appearing in the package leaflets of medicines concerned from autumn 2013.

See more on the EMA website on the new European Union wide black triangle scheme for medicinal products and vaccines,

 indicating that they should be subject to additional monitoring and reporting by health professionals and patients.

EACPT Awards to be presented at August Geneva Congress

The EACPT has announced its awards for 2013, to be presented at the 11th EACPT Congress in Geneva 28th - 31st August 2013. 

The Special Award for services to the EACPT goes to Professor Michael Orme, who co-founded the EACPT 20 years ago in 1993. Professor was EACPT founding secretary then Chairman and played a major role in growing EACPT into a major international organisation representing all clinical pharmacology societies in Europe and their over 4000 clinical pharmacologist members.

The  2013 EACPT Scientific Award goes to Dr David Devos from the Department of Medical Pharmacology at the Université Lille Nord de France. The EACPT Scientific Award is for the report by Dr Devos, using methylphenidate as a new approach to treating Parkinson's disease. 

The paper, for which Dr Devos was corresponding author, was published in the July 2012 issue of 
the high impact international journal -  Lancet Neurology. The prize includes a 2000 € award.

The 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics goes jointly to Professor Sir Michael Rawlins and to Professor Carlo Patrono, for their outstanding contributions to the national and international benefits of clinical pharmacology for medicine, health care and patient safety.

 EACPT website. 

Official EACPT journal - Clinical Therapeutics. 

Update from Paris on Geneva EACPT Congress 28-31 Aug 2013

The EACPT Executive Committee met in Paris 18th-20th April with as major business planning for the 11th biennial EACPT congress to be held from 28^th – 31^st August 2013 in Geneva.  

EACPT biennial congresses provide excellent opportunities to showcase issues of topical international concern to the CPT community.

EACPT Executive Committee at the Hôpital St Antoine in Paris

For the Geneva Congress, it has been confirmed by the local Swiss organisers Marie Besson and Caroline Samer that there will be 101 invited speakers from 21 countries - 15 from the European region and a further 6 countries internationally, from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, China, Benin and India. Close to 400 abstracts have been submitted from 57 countries from all 5 continents for consideration for oral and poster communications. 

 

Key themes at the Geneva congress will range from bedside pharmacology for special patient groups to pharmacology & toxicology, and pharmacology and society.

To register for the Geneva EACPT Congress, go to the Congress website.

New treatment targets in the microcirculation

A joint symposium organized by the British Pharmacological Society and the British Microcirculation Society on 'New pharmacological targets in the microcirculation' will take place from 9.30am - 12.30pm on Thursday 19th December 2013.

This is one of the 10 symposia taking planned for Pharmacology 2013 - the next BPS annual winter meeting, to be held Tuesday 17th - Thursday 19th December, 2013  at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London.

The following 5 themes will be addressed during the symposium:

- microcirculation pharmacology and therapeutic targets by Professor Chris Garland, University of Oxford, UK;

- leukocyte trafficking through microvessels: emergence of novel anti-inflammatory therapeutic avenues by Professor Sussan Nourshargh, Queen Mary University of London

- new approaches for modulating retinal angiogenesis by Professor Alan Stitt, Queen’s University Belfast, UK;

- pharmacological approaches for reducing risk of microvascular stroke

syndromes by Professor Donald Singer, University of Warwick, UK

- microvascular targets in oncology by Professor Kristian Pietras, University of Lund, Sweden.

Abstracts are welcome for Pharmacology 2013 on this microcirculation theme, in addition to the wide range of themes relevant to the spectrum of pharmacology from bench to bedside, disease prevention and beyond.

Pharmacology 2013 (formerly the BPS Winter Meeting) attracts around 800 scientists each year, from throughour the UK, from across Europe and from overseas. The meeting includes a selection of topical symposia, plenary lectures, free oral communications and poster sessions which cover the many aspects of pharmacology from basic to clinical science.

Abstracts and registration for Pharmacology 2013 will open in early Autumn 2013.

Microcirculation symposium programme - Thursday 19th December, 2013

Progress on Personalized Medicine? Updates from Harvard.

@HealthMed The 8th annual Personalized Medicine Conference took place at Harvard this week - a joint venture of Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School and Partners Healthcare, lead by Professor Raju Kucherlapati, from the HMS Department of Genetics. Worth checking the excellent archive of past programmes, presentations and podcasts.
Meantime, some of the highlights?
- An excellent narrative on the partnership between Plexxikon (Peter Hirth) and Roche Diagnostics (Suzanne Cheng) to create a companion diagnostic/therapeutic pairing for vemurafenib (Zelboraf), the first FDA approved pairing for BRAF V600E positive metastatic melanoma
- Further case studies illustrating successful drug development using genetic approaches
- Personal case studies on the impact, clinical value and ethical and clinical challenges of genomic screening: from Joe Beery, Life Technologies, on detecting unrecognised treatable serious early childhood disorders, to John Lauerman, Bloomberg News, on consequences of sequencing for asymptomatic adults - questions on penetrance and future screening for onset e.g.  of metabolic disease and cancers

Harvard Medical School: New Research Building - Avenue Pasteur.

- Clinical potential, and regulatory and reimbursement challenges to introducing molecular diagnostics into clinical care pathways
- Leadership award to Randy Scott, In Vitae, whose discussion points included the relevance of Moore's Law (technology advancing) and Metcalfe's Law (people factors: exponential increase in interaction as network expands) to developments in personalized medicine
- Business models and their governance for use of genetic information
- A North Virginia (John Vockley, Inova) pioneering series of projects aiming to assess outcomes of neonatal genomic sequencing: from insight into preterm labour to prospective longitudinal follow-up to adulthood, supported by multi-generation family member sequencing combined with clinical histories
- The US Air Force Programme on Patient-Centered Precision Care (Dr Cecili Sessions), in partnership with the Coriell Institute and Johns Hopkins University,  aims of which include understanding the impact on health-related behaviour of providing personal genetic information on remediable medical disorders and on drug responses.
- A business school case study led by Professor Richard Hamermesh, Director of the HBS HealthCare Initiative, on reactive and proactive responses for development of companion diagnostics (1).
- Pros and cons of liberal vs. restrictive approaches to IP for genetic and other molecular diagnostics
- Engaging the policy community and the public in ethical, clinical, reimbursement and adoption issues for new diagnostics and treatments aimed at personalizing medicine, including case studies from the American Medical Association and the American Assocation for Cancer Research.

Personalized Medicine Conference website 
Companion and coupled diagnostics

More news on the Geneva EACPT 2013 Congress

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Around 10 months to go until the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics 11th International Congress to be held in beautiful Geneva 28-31 August 2013. The image is one of a series on the congress website showing the best of the city.

Abstract submission is now open for the next EACPT Congress,

Over 900 participants are expected to attend including health professionals, scientists, policy makers, biotechnology and pharmaceutical professionals and others with an interest in basic and clinical pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, drug discovery and development, regulatory affairs and related areas.

Key themes at the congress will range from bedside pharmacology for special patient groups to pharmacology & toxicology, and pharmacology and society. 

Specific topics will include advances in personalised diagnostics to improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines, updates on new biological approaches to ocular disease, therapeutics of cardiovascular, cancer and inflammatory disease, clinical trial design and regulation, and drug safety and toxicology.

See here for more on key themes of the Congress. 

EACPT Geneva 2013 Congress website  

The European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) has its origins in a working party in the early 1980s under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO-Europe). 

The EACPT's next biennial congresses after Geneva 2013 are in Madrid 2015 and in Prague 2017. The EACPT also arranges summer schools, and other scientific and professional activities.

Updates from the European Association Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics

@HealthMed The EACPT is planning two major events in the Summer of 2013. 

Professors David Webb and Simon Maxwell are organizing an EACPT Summer School for young researchers to be held in their home city, Edinburgh, 6 - 8 July, 2013. The programme includes keynote talks by invited expert speakers, workshops, poster presentations, free communications and social events. 

And August 28 - 31, 2103, the 11th EACPT Congress takes place in Geneva, hosted by the Swiss Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. Over 900 participants are expected to attend including health professionals, scientists, policy makers, biotechnology and pharmaceutical professionals and others with an interest in basic and clinical pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, drug discovery and development, regulatory affairs and related areas.

11th EACPT Congress website 

11th EACPT Congress updates

EACPT Summer School details