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Wednesday 25 September 2019

Updates from the European Medicines Agency: from vaccines to repurposing medicines and pharmacovigilance



24th-25th September
The European  Medicines Agency has hosted its first meetings in Amsterdam  for its Healthcare Professional Working Party and Patient and Consumers Working Party since the move of the Agency from its former Canary Wharf headquarters in London. The sessions coincided with the launch of a further three year work programme agreed between the EMA and its working parties.

Papers from the meetings will be available on the EMA website. 

Key themes in the new work programme will include secure supply of medicines, digital media for health, public health strategy on antibiotic resistance, addressing vaccine hesitancy, early access to medicines, pharmacovigilance, and encouraging patient engagement.

Central Amsterdam
Major topics discussed during the current Amsterdam meetings included initiatives to address vaccine hesitancy, updates on pharmacovigilance and initiatives on repurposing of medicines. In addition, the EMA provided updates from its major standing committees, including the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP), Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT), Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), Paediatric Committee (PDCO) and Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC).

Isabel de la Mata, Principal Advisor on Public Health and Crisis Management at the European Commission discussed current initiatives to address vaccine hesitancy, an early priority of EU President-elect Ursula van der Leyer.

De la Mata noted that vaccine coverage is below 95% in many EU member states. A 2019 Eurobarometer on vaccine confidence had highlighted several key points of misinformation, for example with 48% of respondents thinking that vaccines often produce serious side effects, 38% that vaccines can cause the disease they prevent and 55% considering that vaccines overload and weaken the immune system.

A Global Vaccination Summit had been held on 12th September with around 400 delegates political, technical, patients and other - and with WHO collaboration. This led to a 10 point document including new focus on reliable access to vaccines, safety and transparent, clear, independent information.

Actions by member states are to include developing national and regional plans, better access to vaccines, increased public health communications, more training of health professionals, accurate digital information on vaccination status and increased support for vaccine research and innovation.

European level actions are to include a new European Vaccination portal coordinated by ECDC (European Centre for Disease Control) with support from the EMA (EVIS - European Vaccine Information Sharing). Other work will consider dissemination of vaccine schedules, focus on the supply chain, including mitigating shortages and identifying and overcoming barriers to access.

A new coalition of healthcare workers for vaccination, launched on 5th March in Brussels, aims to address and reverse reasons for outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable infections in health workers as recently as 2017 and 2018, with transmission in the healthcare setting even in countries with high vaccination coverage.

John Kinsman, Expert in Social and Behavioural Change Communication at the ECDC, outlined Development of the European Vaccination information Portal. This is due to be piloted in December 2019 and launched in April 2020 during European Immunisation week.

The portal has a legal basis, arising from a 2016 European Commission call for the ECDC to work with EMA to develop the portal.  Issues include the reality that the majority of the public do not have a scientific background and making sure through content, language and accessibility that the portal is as widely available as possible.

The EMA is seeing an exponential increase in reporting by patients of suspected adverse drug reactions.  A pressing aim of the EMA is how best to learn from patient reporting of possible ADR. This will benefit from previous experience of patient reporting to national competent authorities  (e.g. US FDA and UK MHRA [patient reporting since September 2005]) and international agencies (e.g. the WHO Uppsala Monitoring Centre).

Plans for future meetings include proposals for further discussion of initiatives on vaccine uptake.

Monday 8 July 2019

Hear from Prof Harry Sokol why gut microbiota are so important for human diseases and their treatments

The 14th EACPT Congress was 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 term gut microbiota describes the population of microbes living in our intestines. Gut microbiota are being increasingly recognised as important contributors to a wide range of human diseases, from disorders of the gut to cancers and neurological disease.
Gut microbiota also contribute to drug response and to risk of adverse drug effects. Gut microbiota also provide a source of potential treatments.

In this short video you can hear keynote EACPT Congress speaker Professor Harry Sokol from Paris discuss the importance for clinical pharmacologists, other health professionals and patients of understanding emerging key roles for gut microbiota in serious diseases and their treatments.



Discussants  
Professor Harry Sokol, Hôpital Saint-Antoine and Sorbonne University, Paris, France
in discussion with
Professor
Tabassome Simon, EACPT Past-President

The next EACPT Congress

The next EACPT biennial congress will be held in Athens in June 2019. The programme will provide an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy. See more on our website.

Joining the EACPT
Anyone from anywhere in the world with a professional interest in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can now join the EACPT as an Individual Associate member.

Membership benefits include:

* Discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* Online subscription to the EACPT Official journal: the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
* Access to the EACPT’s worldwide network of Individual Associate Members
* Active involvement in EACPT 

25th Anniversary

The EACPT was founded 25 years ago and now includes as members all major 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. Find out more about the EACPT ...


Future EACPT Congresses

2021  Athens
2023  Rotterdam
2025  Helsinki

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Meeting global health challenges: Karolinska President discusses how Clinical Pharmacologists can help

The 14th EACPT Congress was 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.

Keynote opening speaker at the EACPT Congress Professor Ole Petter Ottersen discusses how Clinical Pharmacologists in Europe and beyond can help to meet current global health challenges. In particular he notes that 14 of the 17 current WHO strategic development goals are relevant to safe, effective and equitable use of medicines. He also stresses the need to be aware of and address 'sticky institutions', whether governmental, NGO or commercial as barriers to improving global health policy and its implementation.
Professor Ottersen chaired the international Lancet Commission that studied the political determinants of global health inequalities (The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health).

Discussants  
Professor Ole
Petter Ottersen
, President, Karolinska Institute
Professor Donald Singer: co-opted member of the Executive Committee of the EACPT.

The next EACPT Congress
The next EACPT biennial congress will be held in Athens. The programme will provide an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy. See more on our website.

Joining the EACPT
Anyone from anywhere in the world with a professional interest in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can now join the EACPT as an Individual Associate member.

Membership benefits include:
* Discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* Online subscription to the EACPT Official journal: the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
* Access to the EACPT’s worldwide network of Individual Associate Members
* Active involvement in EACPT 

25th Anniversary

The EACPT was founded 25 years ago and now includes as members all major 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. Find out more about the EACPT ...


Future EACPT Congresses


2021  Athens

2023  Rotterdam

2025  Helsinki

Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomcs - adopting testing for genetic variability in drug response in clinical practice

The 14th EACPT Congress was 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.

Understanding how genetic variability influences both the desired response to medicines and risk of adverse drug reactions has the potential improve the benefits and reduce the risks of treatment with medicines. In this short video you can hear keynote EACPT Congress speaker
Professor Henk-Jan Guchelaar discuss how clinical pharmacologists can implement these pharmacogenetic tests into clinical practice..
Professor Guchelaar coordinates a European Horizon 2020 project - U-PGx: Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics - about implementation of pharmacogenetics in routine health care. 

Discussants  
Professor Henk-Jan Guchelaar, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy & Toxicology Leiden University Medical Centre.
Professor Donald Singer: co-opted member of the Executive Committee of the EACPT.

 

The next EACPT Congress
The next EACPT biennial congress will be held in Athens. The programme will provide an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy. See more on our website.

Joining the EACPT
Anyone from anywhere in the world with a professional interest in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can now join the EACPT as an Individual Associate member.

Membership benefits include:
* Discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* Online subscription to the EACPT Official journal: the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
* Access to the EACPT’s worldwide network of Individual Associate Members
* Active involvement in EACPT 

25th Anniversary

The EACPT was founded 25 years ago and now includes as members all major 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. Find out more about the EACPT ...


Future EACPT Congresses

2021  Athens
2023  Rotterdam
2025  Helsinki

Monday 1 July 2019

Markus Zeitlinger in Stockholm at EACPT Congress discussing better use of antibiotics

The 14th EACPT Congress is being 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.

Failure to respond to antibiotics is a major international concern. In this short video you can hear keynote EACPT Congress speaker Professor Markus Zeitlinger discuss how clinical pharmacologists can help to improve the effects of antibiotics by careful monitoring of drug levels and the patient's response to these powerful medicines.


Discussants  
Professor Markus Zeitlinger, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna
Professor Donald Singer: co-opted member of the Executive Committee of the EACPT.

 

The next EACPT Congress
The next EACPT biennial congress will be held in Athens. The programme will provide an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy. See more on our website.

Joining the EACPT
Anyone from anywhere in the world with a professional interest in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics can now join the EACPT as an Individual Associate member.

Membership benefits include:
* Discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* Online subscription to the EACPT Official journal: the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
* Access to the EACPT’s worldwide network of Individual Associate Members
* Active involvement in EACPT 

25th Anniversary

The EACPT was founded 25 years ago and now includes as members all major 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. Find out more about the EACPT ...


Future EACPT Congresses

2021  Athens
2023  Rotterdam
2025  Helsinki

Delegates at 14th EACPT Congress in early morning Stockholm run

The 14th EACPT Congress is being 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. 

Beating the summer heat by a 7am start, delegates from a wide range of countries took part in a run along the quiet streets of the Swedish capital city. 

You can see below some of the delegates who took part, in photos provided by runner Professor Gerard Rongen, lead organiser of the 6th EACPT Congress, to be held in 2023 in Rotterdam.







Opportunities for EACPT Individual Associate Members include
* discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* networking with colleagues worldwide through the global EACPT network of Individual 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

Sunday 30 June 2019

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.

Saturday 6 April 2019

Tomorrow's medicines: key programme talks announced for EACPT Stockholm Congess 29 June - 2 July 2019

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.
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.
Professor Urs Meyer from Switzerland will give the 2019 EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture based on his work on individual variation in drug response.
Further awards will be presented, including Scientific Awards, including Young Investigator, and EACPT Education Awards.

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

Plenary lectures
Ylva Böttiger:  Clinical pharmacology reaching out - 25 years with EACPT
Ole Petter Ottersen:  Global health research and education in Europe - how can clinical pharmacology contribute?
Harry Sokol:  Gut microbiota - a new actor in pharmacology?
Urs Meyer:  Therapeutic Lessons from Human Individuality
Rosa Giuliani:  Update on treating breast cancer
Jenny Kindblom:  Pediatric clinical trials and their pitfalls 
Tim Nicholson:  New targets in psychopharmacology
Sylvie Laporte:  Meta-epidemiological studies to detect, quantify and adjust for bias in open-label trials
Stefan James:  Innovative ways of performing clinical trials
Björn Wettermark:  How to measure drug utilisation

Cardiovascular prevention
Stephane Laurent:  Update on treating hypertension
Gerard Rongen:  PCSK9 inhibitors - going lower but for whom and at what price? Paul Hjemdahl:  Dual or triple antithrombotic therapy - is two company and three a crowd?

An ageing population
Denis O'Mahoney:  STOPP/START decision support for elderly prescribing
Anne Spinewine:  Prescribing in the frail elderly
 
Workshops
Martin Henriksson:  How to perform a health economic study 
Olof Beck and Markus Meyer: How to measure drug exposure
Jan Marcusson:  How to make on oral presentation and feel good about it

Closing the money gap
Gerd Lärfars:  Horizon scanning frontiers
Andras Inotai:  How to solve money gap to ensure patient access to pharmaceuticals in EU counties
David Webb:  Health economics: big ideas from a small country

Personalized medicine : joint EACPT-EPHAR session
Henk Jan Guchelaar:  Clinical implementation of pharmacogenetics
Viktor Hlavac:  Pharmacogenetics of cancer chemoresistance
Seppo Ylä-Herttuala:  Cardiovascular gene therapy
Martina Schusler-Lenz:  Advanced therapy regulation in the EU

Interprofessional working
Ann Lykkegaard Sørensen:  Interprofessional approach for safer medication in psychiatry
Hanna Seidling:  Benchmarks for successful interdisciplinary collaboration

Debate: Deprescribing is Dangerous
Jamie Coleman:  For; Wade Thompson : Against

Targeting small populations
Caridad Pontes:  barriers to market access, 
Violeta Stoyanova:  drug designation and other regulatory challenges

Critically ill patients
Dario Cattaneo:  Anti-infectives in intensive care
Philippe Vignon:  New sepsis drugs in the pipeline: any reason for hope?
Christoph Stein:  New concepts in opioid analgesia

Antibiotic drug resistance
Johan Mouton:  Antimicrobial resistance. Could PK/PD be the answer?
Alexandra Aubry:  New treatment options for resistent tuberculosis

Polypharmacy: joint session with the Korean Society
Howard Lee:  Polypharmacy in Korea
Ho Sook Kim:  The clinical pharmacology perspectives for the optimal polypharmacy in Korea
Kees Kramers:  Polypharmacy: Acting on the cutting edge of safety, efficacy and compliance

Patient empowerment
Bettina Ryll:  Patient empowerment: Issues with introduction of a new class of drugs
Ann Langius Eklöf:  Smart phones provide smart patients

2020 drug strategy
Jordi Llinares:  achievements and future initiatives; Drug regulation in the 2020s:  Gonzalo Calvo: an academic perspective; Graziella Collu: a pharmaceutical industry perspective

Decision support
Matthew Doogue:  Alert, clinical decision support helping patients and hindering work flow
Lars L Gustafsson:  Clinical pharmacologists with computers - the way forward

Friday 5 April 2019

Updates on the EACPT from Athens


Parthenon, Athens
The EACPT Executive Committee is meeting in Athens from 5th – 6th April 2019 to plan for future activities of the EACPT.

Main topics for discussion include
-       final details for the upcoming 2019 EACPT Congress to be held in Stockholm from 29th June - 2nd July in 2019
-       early planning for the next EACPT Congress, to be held in Athens in 2021, from 26th – 29th June
-       updates from EACPT Research, Regulatory and Education working groups
-       EACPT awards
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. 

Early bird registration deadline - 10th April 2019.  Register online for the 2019 EACPT Congress in Stockholm

The Congress will address Tomorrow's Healthcare Challenges and will be held at the City Conference Centre - 5 minutes from Stockholm Central Station.
EACPT committee in Athens by Hippocrates statue. 
Back row: Per Ankaer, MCI (Denmark), Pierre Marquet (France), Vangelis Manolopoulos (Greece), Markus Zeitlinger (Austria), Janne Backman (Finland), Caroline Samer (Switzerland)  Donald Singer (UK),  Michial van Agtmael (Netherlands), Achim Schmidtko (Germany). Front row:  Jamie Coleman (UK), Tabassome Simon (France), Ylva Böttiger (Sweden), Arantxa Sancho Lopez (Spain), Gerard Rongen (Netherlands).
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.


Further awards will be presented, including Scientific Awards, including Young Investigator, and EACPT Education Awards.

Around 60 invited speakers are expected from throughout Europe and beyond. Congress keynote lectures, sessions and themes will include:
  • Advanced therapies
  • Ageing populations
  • Anti-coagulation
  • Anti-microbial resistance
  • Beating cancer
  • Chronic disease
  • Clinical drug research of tomorrow
  • Clinical pharmacologists versus computers
  • Clinical use of pharmacokinetics
  • Closing the money gap  
  • Computers vs. clinical pharmacologists
  • Deprescribing
  • Drug-drug interaction
  • Drug regulation in the 2020s
  • Drug utilisation
  • EACPT meets Asian Societies      
  • Ethics in clinical research
  • Global Health
  • How to become a clinical pharmacologist
  • How to make an oral presentation
  • How to measure drug exposure
  • How to measure drug use
  • How to perform a health economic study
  • Inter-professional exchange for better drug treatment
  • Mental health
  • Misuse of medicines
  • Patient empowerment
  • Polypharmacy: joint symposium with the Korean Society (KSCPT)
  •  medicine: EPHAR-EACPT joint symposium
  • Preparing tomorrow's prescribers
  • Prescribing and deprescribing
  • Publish or perish
  • Rare diseases
  • Targeting small populations  
  • The critically ill patient
  • Treating ageing populations 
  • Treating disease in children
Major awards to be presented at the Stockholm Congress include the EACPT Lifetime Achievement Award, the biennial EACPT Scientific Award for best publication on a clinical pharmacology or therapeutic theme, Young Investigator awards jointly with EPHAR, and the EACPT Education Award.

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 
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.