EACPT Lifetime Achievement Awards announced for Professor Sir Michael Rawlins and Professor Carlo Patrono

We are delighted to announce that the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics will go 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.

These Awards, including the EACPT silver medal, will be presented during the 11th EACPT Congress in Geneva, 28th - 31st August 2013. 

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins

Michael Rawlins was from 1999-2013 the first chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), and from 1998-2008, Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He was also Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1973 – 2006) and from 1992-1998 Chairman of the UK Committee on the Safety of Medicines, which advised UK government ministers on marketing authorization for new pharmaceuticals, and on withdrawal of medicines in the event of safety concerns. He is currently President of the Royal Society of Medicine and Chairman of the UK Biobank.

As Chairman of NICE, he led one of the world’s most important healthcare organizations, which, based on clinical and cost-effectiveness, guides the National Health Service on whether medicines and other health technologies should be available to patients, and develops evidence-based clinical guidelines for health professionals. Many countries have studied the work of NICE and adopted its ideas and innovations.

Sir Michael’s outstanding scientific contributions have been recognised by the award of numerous honours and distinctions, including his appointment as Knight Bachelor in 1999 for “services to the improvement of patient protection from the side effects of medicinal drugs”. 

Carlo Patrono is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the Catholic University School of Medicine (UCSC) in Rome, Italy.  He is also the Chairman of the Task Force on Antiplatelet Agents of the European Society of Cardiology.

Prof. Patrono’s main research interest is in the study of platelet activation and inhibition in atherothrombosis. He pioneered development of radioimmunoassays for measuring prostanoid and isoprostane biosynthesis in health and disease. His research has characterized the human pharmacology of aspirin as an inhibitor of platelet COX-1 and provided the basis for the development of low-dose aspirin as an antithrombotic agent. During the past decade Prof. Patrono has contributed to characterizing the human pharmacology of COX-2 inhibitors and evaluating their cardiovascular effects in different clinical settings.

For development of low-dose aspirin for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, Professor Patrono was joint recipient with Garret FitzGerald in April 2013 from the Institut de France of the 500,000 euro 2013 Grand Prix Scientifique, the world’s most prestigious prize for cardiovascular research.  

He has also received the Alexander B. Gutman award from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the Distinguished Award in Neuroscience from the Louisiana State University, the 1998 International Aspirin® Award from Bayer AG, the 2007 John Vane Award from the William Harvey Research Institute of the University of London, and the 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award of the Eicosanoid Research Foundation. 

TheEACPT was founded 20 years ago and now includes all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe. 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.

Official EACPT journal: Clinical Therapeutics 

EACPT announces Clinical Therapeutics as its new Official Journal

The European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics is delighted to be announce Clinical Therapeutics as its Official Journal, in partnership with the major international publisher Elsevier. 

This interaction is timely both in view of the increasing need to meet international therapeutic challenges and new developments at the journal, including broadening its remit to include the pharmacology underpinning successful therapeutics.
 
The journal will from April 2013 feature highlights of EACPT scientfic and other activities and provide information on future EACPT congresses, summer schools and other events. The journal will also publish peer-reviewed original papers and reviews arising from EACPT conferences.

Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Therapeutics Dr. Richard Shader welcomed the agreement reached with European Association of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) to adopt Clinical Therapeutics as its Official Journal. 

He said “This interaction is timely both in view of the increasing need to meet international therapeutic challenges and the renewed editorial calendar to broaden the journal's scope to include the pharmacology underpinning successful therapeutics”.
See more about the new affiliation between EACPT and Clinical Therapeutics

Register for the 11th EACPT Congress in Geneva 28-31 August 2013

More on the Geneva EACPT Congress

Update from Paris on the EACPT

Late cherry blossom in Paris

The EACPT Executive Committee met in Paris 18th-20th April, hosted by EACPT Vice-Chair Professor Tabassome Simon. The main business of this EC meeting included 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, through timely and accessible original research presentations and commentaries to policy-makers, health and industry professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia.

The Geneva Congress will bring together a wide range of international delegates, including health

EACPT Executive Committee at the Hôpital St Antoine in Paris

professionals, clinical and life scientists, policy makers, professionals from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical communities and others interested in the spectrum from basic to clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, and from drug discovery to regulatory affairs. For the Geneva Congress, 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.

Marie Besson (see Figure) and Caroline Samer are leading the local organizing committee for the EACPT in Geneva. Key themes at the Geneva congress will range from bedside pharmacology for special patient groups,

Marie Besson with EACPT Chairman Gonzalo Calvo

to pharmacology & toxicology, and pharmacology and society. Further sessions will include new biological agents, translational medicine and pharmacogenetics, 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, drug safety and toxicology, clinical trial design and governance, health policy, communicating with the public, and safe prescribing. There will also be sessions on the safety of drugs, and on the European and international regulatory environment. 

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