2019 EACPT Scientific Award goes to David Brinkman for paper on CPT education

Congratulations to David Brinkman from the Department of Internal Medicine at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam who has won 2019 EACPT Scientific Award for the best scientific paper on a clinical pharmacology or therapeutic theme in the previous 2 years.

His winning paper on “Key Learning Outcomes for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Education in Europe: A Modified Delphi Study” was published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics [2018;104:317-325]. Dr Brinkman will receive the EACPT Scientific Award on Tuesday 2nd July during the 14th biennial EACPT Congress in Stockholm.

David Brinkman was the first author of the report, which he co-authored with international colleagues from the Education Working Group of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) and its affiliated Network of Teachers in Pharmacotherapy.

Recent studies had reported both that the prescribing competencies of final-year medical students in Europe were poor, which if happening in clinical practice could result in potentially harmful prescribing errors; and that there is marked variation in CPT education within and between European countries.

In the paper, key learning outcomes were identified for teaching and assessing CPT in undergraduate medical curricula in Europe.

A large European expert panel reached consensus on 252 key learning outcomes that should be included in undergraduate CPT curricula to ensure that European graduates are able to prescribe safely and effectively. The panel also provided a blueprint of a European core curriculum in CPT, including key learning outcomes and how they might be taught and assessed during undergraduate medical training.

The paper concluded that a European core curriculum in CPT might help to harmonize CPT education and improve the prescribing competencies of future European doctors and thereby patient safety.

EACPT Congress will be held from 29th June to 2nd July in 2019 in Stockholm as a partnership between the EACPT and the Swedish Society for Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 

Opportunities for EACPT Associate Members include
* discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* networking with colleagues worldwide through the global EACPT network of Associate Members
* active involvement in EACPT Working Parties and other activities 

Find out how to become an Associate Member of the EACPT 

Future EACPT Congresses will be held in:
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded in 1993 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.

2019 EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award to go to Professor Urs Meyer from Switzerland

The EACPT is delighted to announce that the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics will go to Professor Urs Meyer from Switzerland.

The Award, which includes the EACPT silver medal, will be presented to Professor Meyer during the 2019 EACPT congress in Stockholm which is being held from 29 June to 2 July 2019.

To register for the congress and attend Professor Meyer's Lifetime Award Lecture click on eacpt2019.org 

Urs A. Meyer went through a remarkable career as physician and scientist whose discoveries and scientific results have fundamentally contributed to clinical pharmacology and its development in recent decades.

His research has focused on “pharmacological individuality” or person-to-person variation of drug response throughout his career, from studying the drug sensitivity of the pharmacogenetic disease porphyria to the pharmacogenomics of drug disposition and its co-regulation by drug interactions and environmental factors. 

These predictable variations in drug response are important components of individualized drug therapy or personalized and stratified medicine. Urs Meyer probably is best known for the discovery of the molecular mechanisms of several common genetic polymorphisms of drug disposition. His laboratory identified the genes and mutations in these genes causing variation in drug response and developed the first pharmacogenetic DNA tests, initially for the genes now called CYP2D6 and NAT2. The publications describing these genetic variations in drug response in Nature, PNAS, Lancet, etc. are some of the most cited papers in the therapeutic literature. 

At that time they transformed the field of pharmacogenetics into a molecular science. Urs Meyer’s group was engaged and productive in a further type of inter-individual variation of drug response, namely the transcriptional activation or repression of numerous genes, including many drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters, by exogenous and endogenous factors. His laboratory has discovered important early steps in the recognition mechanisms for these factors in cells and the consequent signal transfer to the nucleus.  This is an area of great clinical importance with regard to understanding inter-individual variations in the therapeutic and toxic effects of drugs. 

Urs Meyer takes care of most of the porphyria families in Switzerland and in several surrounding countries. Focusing on the pharmacogenetic disease porphyria and its unsolved syndrome of neuropsychiatric symptoms Urs Meyer’s team has developed an animal model of this pharmacogenetic disease, imitating the human defect. These mice have a phenotype closely resembling the human disorder and are presently used in several laboratories to develop new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of inducible acute porphyria.

Sustained productivity across the domains of basic and clinical pharmacology has resulted in over 340 original publications, reviews and book chapters. Urs Meyer has been listed since 2001 within the exclusive ISI’s Highly Cited Researchers database. His publications have been cited over 30,000 times and his H-index is 93. Urs Meyer’s scientific achievements have also has been recognized by numerous awards and honours, including the Rawls-Palmer Award for Progress in Medicine of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the RT Williams Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics – among many others.

Beyond the laboratory and patient care, Urs Meyer has maintained a strong commitment to the teaching of rational therapeutics to medical students and to training programmes in drug development sciences, e.g. within the European Center for Pharmaceutical Medicine ECPM courses in science-based drug development. He has trained 71 graduate students and 62 post-doctoral fellows and more than 35 of his previous collaborators are now in academic positions all over the world. A number of scientists, of whom 9 from the USA, have spent time as sabbatical professors in the laboratory of Urs Meyer.

Urs Meyer also has assumed leadership roles at the international level, including the WHO and NIH. He has served on numerous peer review panels and editorial boards, presently as Associate Editor of Annual Reviews of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Personalized Medicine in 2011. As an example of his international activities, he was selected to present the Pharmacogenomics Research Network PGRN to the NIH Council in 2000 and was a member of the External Scientific Panel for this program. He also was president of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) 2010-2011, with offices in Washington, D.C.

The EACPT was founded 25 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.

The official journal of the EACPT is the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 

Still time to submit an abstract for the EACPT Congress in Sweden: 29th June to 2nd July 2019

Stockholm

The next EACPT Congress will be held from 29th June to 2nd July in 2019 in Stockholm as a partnership between the EACPT and the Swedish Society for Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

The Congress will address Tomorrow's Healthcare Challenges and will be held at the City Conference Centre - 5 minutes from Stockholm Central Station.

Abstract closing date extended to 14th March.

Register online

The Congress Reception on the evening of Saturday 29th June, will be held at Stockholm City Hall, the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet.

The Keynote Opening Lecture will be given by the President at the Karolinska Institute, Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, on global health and clinical pharmacology.

Around 60 invited speakers are expected from throughout Europe and beyond. Congress keynote lectures, sessions and themes will include:

• Advanced therapies
• Chronic disease
• Clinical pharmacologists versus computers
• Closing the money gap  
• Drug regulation in the 2020's
• EACPT meets Asian Societies      
• EPHAR-EACPT joint symposium on personalised medicine
• Ethics in clinical research
• Global Health
• How to become a clinical pharmacologist
• How to measure drug exposure
• How to measure drug use
• How to perform a health economic study
• Interprofessional exchange for better drug treatment
• Misuse of medicines
• Patient empowerment
• Preparing tomorrow's prescribers
• Prescribing and deprescribing
• Targeting small populations  
• The critically ill patient
• Treating ageing populations 
• Treating cancer
• Treating children

Major awards to be presented at the Stockholm Congress include the EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award and the biennial EACPT Scientific Award for best publication on a clinical pharmacology or therapeutic theme.

Opportunities for EACPT Associate Members include
* discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* networking with colleagues worldwide through the global EACPT network of Associate Members
* active involvement in EACPT Working Parties and other activities 

Find out how to become an Associate Member of the EACPT 

Future EACPT Congresses will be held in:
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded in 1993 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.

The 2017 EACPT Scientific Award

The EACPT 2017 Congress was held in Prague from 24th-27th June with 566 participants from all 5 continents - 28% from beyond the European Region, from Australia to China, Japan and South Korea to the USA. The Congress included 22 sessions with Keynote Lectures on current issues for research, education and clinical practice on safe and effective use of medicines. Almost 500 oral and poster presentations will be presented by delegates from the European Region and around the world.

Prof. Simon, Prof Webb and Prof. Böttiger

The EACPT Scientific Award was presented to Professor David Webb, President of the British Pharmacological Society for his 2015 Lancet paper on PATHWAY 2.  This study
reported a significant improvement in blood pressure control in older, overweight patients with poorly controlled hypertension despite combination medical therapy when the mineralocorticoid antagonist spironolactone was added, treatment supported by directly observed therapy.

Future EACPT Congresses

- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded in 1993 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.

Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT.

Major awards presented at EACPT Congress in Prague

Prof. Neuvonen

The EACPT 2017 Congress was held in Prague from 24th-27th June with 566 participants from all 5 continents - 28% from beyond the European Region, from Australia to China, Japan and South Korea to the USA. The Congress included 22 sessions with Keynote Lectures on current issues for research, education and clinical practice on safe and effective use of medicines. Almost 500 oral and poster presentations will be presented by delegates from the European Region and around the world.

The 2017 EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor Pertti J. Neuvonen, Finland for his outstanding contribution to the national and international benefits of clinical pharmacology for medicine, health care and patient safety.
Read more ... 

Prof  Calvo  with Prof. Kržan.

 Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology at the 2017 EACPT Congress in Prague was presented on 25th June to current EACPT President Professor Tabassome Simon from Paris and EACPT Past-President Professor Gonzalo Calvo from Barcelona. 

Prof. Kržan, Prof. Simon and Prof.Griesbacher

The awards were announced by EPHAR Past-President Professor Thomas Griesbacher and EPHAR President-Elect Mojka Kržan.

See more ... 

Prof. Simon, Prof Webb and Prof. Böttiger

The EACPT Scientific Award was presented to Professor David Webb, President of the British Pharmacological Society for his 2015 Lancet paper on PATHWAY 2.  This study
reported a significant improvement in blood pressure control in older, overweight patients with poorly controlled hypertension despite combination medical therapy when the mineralocorticoid antagonist spironolactone was added, treatment supported by directly observed therapy.

Prof. Hiley, Prof. Böttiger, Dr. Schirris and Prof. Simon

EACPT-EPHAR Awards were presented by EPHAR President Robin Hiley, EACPT Immediate Past-Chair Tabassome Simon and EACPT Chair Ylva Böttiger.

Dr Tom Schirris received his EACPT-EPHAR Award for his work on novel off-targeting of statins to understand contributory factors in risk of statin induced muscle damage.

Profs. Hiley, Böttiger, Rongen and Simon.

Dr Hoeke Baarsma received his EACPT-EPHAR Award for work on WNT-5A as a novel target to inhibit as a potential way to recover alveolar function and thus reduce development and severity of emphysema in COPD. Prof. Gerard Rongen accepted the award on behalf of Dr Baarsma.

Dr Samer, Prof. Maxwell and Education colleagues

The award of the EACPT Education Working Group went to Professor Simon Maxwell from Edinburgh for his national and international work on improving education of future and current prescribers.

 

 Future EACPT Congresses: 

- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded 25 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.

Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT.

EACPT 2017 Congress underway in Prague

The EACPT 2017 Congress is underway in Prague from 24th-27th June with 566 participants from all 5 continents - 28% from beyond the European Region, from Australia to China, Japan and South Korea to the USA.

Professor Pertti J. Neuvonen

The Congress includes 22 sessions with Keynote Lectures on current issues for research, education and clinical practice on safe and effective use of medicines. 

Almost 500 oral and poster presentations will be presented by delegates from the European Region and around the world  

During the opening session on Saturday 24th June, the 2017 EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor Pertti J. Neuvonen, Finland. 

Paoletti Medal Awards

The Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology at the 2017 EACPT Congress in Prague was presented on 25th June to current EACPT President Professor Tabassome Simon from Paris and EACPT Past-President Professor Gonzalo Calvo from Barcelona. The awards were announced by EPHAR Past-President Professor Thomas Griesbacher and EPHAR President-Elect Mojka Kržan.

See more ...

 

Further scientific Awards will be presented later during the Congress.

During the Congress, delegates will have the opportunity to network with global experts and trainees in the fields of research, clinical practice, the biotechnology sector, regulation and health policy. There will also be updates on the activities of the EACPT Working Groups for Research, Education, Regulation and Young Pharmacologists.

More on the Prague Congress

Future EACPT Congresses:
- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam
 
The EACPT was founded 25 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.
Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT.

Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology awarded to EACPT Current and Past Presidents.

The Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology at the 2017 EACPT Congress in Prague has been presented to current EACPT President Professor Tabassome
Simon from Paris and EACPT Past-President Professor Gonzalo Calvo from Barcelona. The awards were presented by EPHAR Past-President Professor Thomas Griesbacher and EPHAR President-Elect Mojka Kržan.

Prof. Mojca KRŽAN, EPHAR, Prof. Tabassome Simon - EACPT and Prof. Thomas Griesbacher - EPHAR

Prof. Gonzalo Calvo - EACPT with Mojka Kržan. - EPHAR.

The Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology is named after Rodolfo Paoletti, first President of the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies (1990-1997). The medal was created by EPHAR in 2014 to honour distinguished pharmacologists who have achieved merits for the discipline of Pharmacology in Europe.

Tabassome Simon has since 2015 been the Chair of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT). She is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology, AP-HP, Saint-Antoine Hospital, Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) in Paris, France. She is also Member of the Board of the National Union of University Hospital Pharmacologists, of the Research Committee of the French Society of Cardiology, the strategic committee of the Pierre et Marie Curie University (UPMC-Paris 06), and the Research committee for the cancer university Institute (IUC-Paris 06). Pr Simon is the Director of the Clinical Research platform of the East of Paris, including the Clinical Research Unit (URC-EST: http://www.urcest.chusa.upmc.fr/), the clinical Research Center, and the BioBank Research Center of UPMC-Paris 06 University. Currently, the clinical research platform coordinates several multicenter national and international studies throughout centers in France. Read more ... 

Gonzalo Calvo was President of the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) from 2011 - 2015.Gonzalo Calvo is a consultant in Clinical Pharmacology at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Barcelona (UB). After receiving his medical degree, he specialized in Clinical Pharmacology at CSU Vall d’Hebron (1993) and became a doctor of medicine in 1997. Prof. Calvo’s main area of expertise is drug regulation, with particular interest in cardiovascular and onco-haematology. He has been principal investigator of around 50 clinical trials and has co-authored 85 peer-reviewed papers and 2 books. From 2002 to 2011, he represented the Spanish Agency on Medicines and Healthcare Products (AEMPS) at the EMA Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) as rapporteur of more than 60 new drug applications. Prof. Calvo has since 2013 been the co-chair of the European Medicines Agency Healthcare Professional Working Party. 

The Rodolfo Paoletti Medal for Distinction in European Pharmacology is named after Rodolfo Paoletti, first President of the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies (1990-1997). The medal was created by EPHAR in 2014 to honour distinguished pharmacologists who have achieved merits for the discipline of Pharmacology in Europe.

The 2019 EACPT Congress will be held in Stockholm and the 2021 EACPT Congress in Athens.

The EACPT was founded 25 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.

Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT.

Announcement of first joint EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology

The inaugural EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology have been conferred on PhD student Christoph Schneider from Bern in Switzerland and Dr Daniel Antoine from Liverpool in the UK.

The Federation of European Pharmacology Societies (EPHAR) and the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) developed this joint initiative to recognise projects of excellence in translational research in pharmacology. There are 2 awards of EUR 1,000 each that will be given in 2015 to the above two young scientists for their recent outstanding research papers. 

Requirements for the Awards are that applicants must be not more than 35 years of age on the deadline date, have as first author published an outstanding paper in the 2 years prior to the Awards, have conducted the submitted study in an institution of a country member of EACPT and/or EPHAR; and be a member of one of the member societies of EPHAR or EACPT, or be an individual associate member of EACPT.

Christoph Schneider's award was for his paper The human IgG anti-carbohydrate repertoire exhibits a universal architecture and contains specificity for microbial attachment sites, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine in January 2015.

A systems biology approach was applied in this study to explore the human repertoire of IgG antibodies for binding 610 different biologically relevant glycan epitopes. Schneider conducted the data analysis using state-of-the-aart bioinformatics involving a range of programs, including the statistical computing graphic software environment “R”. Furthermore, Schneider conducted research involving full access to the consortium of functional glycomics array database as well as the bacterial carbohydrate structure database.

Christoph Schneider

Christoph Schneider's obtained his Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2013. Since then, he has been PhD student at the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Bern, in the research-group of Stephan von Gunten (MD, PhD). Christoph Schneider gained previous insights into research as research assistant in Switerland at the ETH in Zurich as well as at Frimorfo AG in Marly. Currently, his research interests cover different fields of glycomics and immunology, such as the protein-carbohydrate interactions of immunoglobulins and of Siglec receptors, expressed on NK- and cytotoxic T cells. His research is based on in vitro techniques involving primary human leukocytes as well as human antibody-preparations and involves different analytical approaches, such as flow cytometry, glycan arrays, confocal microscopy and system level approaches.

Dr Daniel Antoine's award was for his paper Mechanistic Biomarkers Provide Early and
Sensitive Detection of Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Injury at First Presentation to
Hospital published in August 2013 in the journal Hepatology. The main finding of this published study was that a panel of novel biomarkers linked to the mechanism of hepatotoxicity can report acute liver injury very early on in man, before currently
used clinical chemistry markers. This paper builds on his previous translational work in clinical and preclinical studies utilising this biomarker approach to define the mechanistic basis of acetaminophen-induced liver injury and to also predict prognosis. 

Dr Daniel Antoine

Dr  Antoine works in the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science in the Department of. Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool in the UK. Dr Daniel Antoine is currently a Wellcome Trust funded research fellow at the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science (CDSS) and lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, UK. Dr Antoine completed his PhD in 2009 in Pharmacology. Prior to his PhD, Dr Antoine completed his B.Sc (Hons) in Biochemistry (first class) and worked in research posts within Molecular Toxicology at AstraZeneca. He undertook postdoctoral training at the CDSS with Prof BK Park and Prof M Pirmohamed as well as Royal Society International Travelling Fellowships at the Harvard Medical School, USA, with Prof JV Bonventre and at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, with Prof U Andersson. Dr Antoine is currently the coordinator of the safety biomarker research group at the CDSS, Liverpool, UK. 

His research is mainly focused on the understanding of fundamental mechanisms related to adverse drug reactions and the prediction of drug toxicity through the development of translational biomarkers of drug-induced liver and kidney injury. He is a member of the DILI (drug-induced liver injury) project team for the SAFE-T (Safer And Evidence based Translation) IMI consortium to develop and qualify safety biomarkers. He also sits on the British Toxicology Society’s (BTS) Education, Training and Early Career Toxicologists Sub-Committee and is the co-chair of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) Toxicology Affinity Group. In 2014, Dr Antoine was elected to serve as a Councillor for the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Drug Metabolism and Drug Transport Section Executive Board. 

In 2013, Dr Antoine received the British Toxicology Society’s Early Career Investigator Award and in 2015 received the European New Investigator Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) and the 2015 Bill Bowman Travelling Lectureship from the British Pharmacological Society. Dr Antoine is an editorial board member for the journals Pharmacology Research & Perspectives and Biomarkers. Dr Antoine’s academic research is currently funded by grants awarded from the European Commission, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, The Royal Society and the pharmaceutical industry.

The  joint EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology will be presented at an Awards Ceremony during the 12th EACPT Congress in Madrid - 27th - 30th June 2015 where both award winners will present their research findings.