2017 EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award to go to Professor Pertti Neuvonen from Finland

The EACPT is  delighted to announce that the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics will go to Professor Pertti J. Neuvonen from Finland for his outstanding contribution to the national and international benefits of clinical pharmacology for medicine, health care and patient safety.

The Award, which includes the EACPT silver medal, will be presented to Professor Neuvonen during the 13th EACPT Congress in Prague. The Congress runs from 24th - 27th June 2017.

Professor Emeritus Pertti J. Neuvonen

Professor Emeritus Pertti J. Neuvonen, whose research focuses on drug safety and individual variability in drug response, particularly on drug interactions and their mechanisms, is one of the most cited clinical pharmacologists in the world, with over 20,000 citations. He has been listed by Thomson Reuters for years as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Pharmacology. He has authored over 500 original articles and reviews. Of the original papers, 92 have been published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. He has supervised around 50 Doctoral (PhD) thesis projects. 

Since 1970, Neuvonen´s research group has found more than 200 previously unrecognized, clinically important drug-drug interactions and several significant food-drug interactions. Furthermore, his group demonstrated, already in the 1980-90s, the efficacy of activated charcoal as gastric decontaminator, compared with induced emesis and gastric lavage. The drug interaction studies in humans were deepened by in vitro studies to explore mechanism, predictability and avoidance of the interactions. His group observed that inhibition and induction of CYP3A4/5-enzyme could cause over 10-fold changes in exposure to several drugs (midazolam, triazolam, buspirone, felodipine, simvastatin, lovastatin). 

Furthermore, his group discovered among generally used drugs many previously unrecognized inhibitors of drug metabolism (itraconazole: CYP3A4; gemfibrozil and clopidogrel: CYP2C8) and unexpected victim substrates (tizanidine: CYP1A2; cerivastatin, repaglinide, pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, loperamide, montelukast: CYP2C8). In addition to drug metabolizing enzymes, also membrane transporters (e.g., OATP1B1, P-glycoprotein, BCRP), and their pharmacogenetics and interactions were found to affect pharmacokinetics (e.g., statins) and drug response. Many of the original findings made by Neuvonen and his research groups have been adopted into textbooks, guidelines (e.g., FDA) and product information texts.

Pertti Neuvonen was born in Kirvu (Finland) on 25. August 1943. He is married and has five adult children. He studied medicine at the University of Helsinki between 1964 and 1970, and defended his doctoral thesis at this University in 1971. From 1971 to 1972, he was as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in Hannover Medical School (Germany). From 1972-1985, he was Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor/Consultant of Clinical Pharmacology, and from 1986-1988 Acting Professor and Head Physician of Clinical Pharmacology at University of Helsinki and University Central Hospital, including the National Poison Information Centre. Between 1988 and 1991, he was Professor and Chairman of Pharmacology at University of Turku. From 1992 to 2011, he was Professor and Head of Clinical Pharmacology at University of Helsinki and University Central Hospital. After his retirement in 2011, he continues his studies at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology as a free researcher. In 2011, he received the BCPT Nordic Prize in Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, and the Medal of the FDA Office of Clinical Pharmacology.

The EACPT was founded 24 years ago and now includes as members all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. The EACPT aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000 individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can contribute to human health and wealth.

2015 EACPT Lifetime Award winner Michel Eichelbaum discusses pharmacogenetics at the Madrid Congress

Professor Tabassome Simon with Professor Michel Eichelbaum

The 12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (http://eacpt.eu) is underway in Madrid from 27th to 30th June 2015. Over 500 abstracts have been accepted from 66 countries and form all 5 continents for presentation as e-posters and oral presentations. the 54 oral presentations are eligible for an award for the best talk. 

Hear new EACPT chair Professor Tabassome Simon in discussion with 2015 EACPT  Lifetime Award winner Professor Michel Eichelbaum about the importance and some of the challenges of applying pharmacogenetics to clinical practice.




Michel Eichelbaum is one of the most cited pharmacologists in in the world. He has published nearly 500 articles, reviews and book chapters and numerous abstracts, and his work has been cited over 25,000 times by other authors. His primary research interest has been the pharmacogenetics of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporter proteins. He was also one of the pioneers of studying various aspects of the stereochemistry of drugs, the use of stable isotopes in clinical pharmacology and intestinal metabolism and transport of drugs. 

In 1975, he discovered a genetic polymorphism in the oxidation of the antiarrhythmic and oxytocic drug, sparteine, which later became known as CYP2D6 polymorphism. This is considered his single most important scientific discovery. Later, he became involved in research on factors involved in the regulation of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters with special emphasis on nuclear receptors. This basic research is supplemented by clinical studies in oncology with special emphasis on breast cancer treatment, HIV, psychiatry and organ transplantation in which the consequences of genetic polymorphisms of these proteins for drug effects and toxicity are explored.

He was born in Leipzig on 19 May 1941. He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg between 1960 and 1966, and he defended his doctoral thesis at this University in 1968. During 1966 to 1968, he was an intern in Internal Medicine, Surgery and Gynaecology and Obstetrics. Between 1968 and1976, he was a resident in Internal Medicine at University Hospitals of Giessen and Bonn. From 1976-1985, he was attending physician and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at the Department of Medicine, University of Bonn.

He is a specialist in both Clinical Pharmacology and in Internal Medicine. From 1985 and 21 years onwards, he was the Director of the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, Germany. Simultaneously, he was Professor and Chairman of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Tübingen, and in 2001 he became Adjunct Professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

During his career, Michel Eichelbaum has obtained several Research Fellowships. During 1970-1971, he worked in the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, National Heart and Lung Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, together with Drs. B.B. Brodie and J.R. Gillette. From 1973-1974, he was working at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, together with Professor Folke Sjöqvist, and from 1995-1996 he was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, University of Adelaide, Australia. Michel Eichelbaum has received numerous awards and honours. This year, he was honoured with the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is the third European to receive this prize. 

The EACPT was founded 22 years ago and now includes as members all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. The EACPT aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000 individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can contribute to human health and wealth.