2011 Anniversary Yearbook - EUFEPS today and history

EUFEPS Newsletter, 1997, vol. 6, issue 4
Strategic events
Malcolm Rowland Professor
EUFEPS President and University of Manchester, United Kingdom
In some ways it seems but a moment, and
in others an age, but it is one year since
I took over the presidency of EUFEPS.
Then, I wrote an editorial on the visions
and realisations of EUFEPS in the
December 1996 issue of the Newsletter.
One year on seems an appropriate time
to reflect on what we have achieved and
express some views on the future.
Permanent secretariat
Perhaps the most important strategic event
over the last year has been the establishment
of a permanent home for the secretariat,
who have been doing an outstanding job
with limited resources available. But,
you might say, the secretariat is housed
already within the premises of the Swedish
Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
That is true, but it was a temporary
arrangement through the kind generosity
of the Swedish Pharmaceutical Society,
which has provided space and financial
assistance. So I am now delighted to report
that, at the recent meeting in Istanbul,
Council approved the proposal from the
Executive Committee that the secretariat
be permanently housed within the current
premises in Stockholm, and thank the
Swedish Pharmaceutical Society for
making this possible. Every organisation
needs an efficient, well-resourced and stable
secretariat to implement its policies and
undertake its day-to-day functions. Now
having secured the base, the secretariat
needs to be enhanced to adequately serve
the increasing activities of EUFEPS.
Graduate student meeting
Another important development at Council,
was the support of an initiative from the
German Pharmaceutical Society for the
establishment of a European Meeting of
Graduate Students in the Pharmaceutical
Sciences, the first of which to take place,
in English, in Frankfurt, February 20–22,
1998. Previously a successful national
meeting, the intention is that it become
European but its success depends heavily
on research students from other countries
attending and becoming actively involved.
Training of high quality researchers
with the necessary skills and knowledge
to meet the future challenges in the
pharmaceutical sciences is paramount.
This subject has been one of the important
activities of the Committee of Industrial
Relations, (CIR) which is helping to define
and identify the needs through various
means, including questionnaires. And, this
given its importance, training will command
increasing attention within EUFEPS in the
coming years. CIR serves as an excellent
example of what a group of committed,
motivated and enthusiastic individuals can
accomplish, and EUFEPS will follow this
example and establish a number of additional
committees to deal with such matters as
conferences, membership, and awards.
Major scientific meetings
To establish itself as a major regional
organisation in the pharmaceutical
sciences EUFEPS has, in addition to
its usual successful biennial European
Congress in Pharmaceutical Sciences, the
next to be in Milan, September 11–13 1998,
which I encourage you to attend, run more
specialised meetings often in collaboration
with other organisations. Examples have
been the recent successful meetings on
Drug Absorption (Edinburgh) and Drug
Metabolism (Gothenburg), together with the
Edinburgh Drug Absorption Foundation
and ISSX, respectively. Another example
is the forth coming meeting in Jerusalem,
April 25–29, 1999, organised together with
the European Congress in Biopharmacy
XIX
and Pharmacokinetics, around the central
theme “Mechanistically-based Drug
Discovery and Development: Integrating
the Biological Revolution”. As part of our
strategic plan we have also successfully
sought sponsorship of some of our meetings
from our sister organisation within the USA,
AAPS, and from the FDA and EMEA,
an example being the next Nuremberg
meeting, this 27–29 November, on “Drug-
Drug and Drug-Food Interactions” - For
those of you that attended the recent AAPS
meeting in Boston you will have noticed in
the program the joint EUFEPS-AAPS short
course on cell-lines and tissue cultures,
which was first successfully run in our
1996 Edinburgh Congress. We intend to
undertake more such and other activities
with AAPS.
Flagship journal
The editorship of the European Journal
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, our flagship
journal, will move its base from the
Netherlands to Uppsala, Sweden, by early
1998. The existing editors, Professors H.
Junginger and G. Mulder, who have done
an extremely important job of giving EJPS
its initial push, will pass on the baton to
Professor P. Artursson and his colleagues
to move it further. However, EJPS will only
become the highly successful journal that
we would all like to see if you submit your
best papers to it. We are also of the opinion
that there are too many journals dealing with
the pharmaceutical sciences within Europe
and there is need for further consolidation.
Increasing membership
Finally, a note on membership which has
remained relatively static over the past
year. We now have Member Societies
from most countries within Europe and we
are hopeful that the remaining countries
in which there is a strong presence of
pharmaceutical sciences will join us
during the coming years. We also feel
strongly about our Individual Members,
as they identify personally with the aims
and aspirations of EUFEPS. We intend
to increase this sector of our membership
over the next few years, as well as that
of our Corporate Members, which has
grown, but has room to grow still further.
In closing
Through this Newsletter, it remains for
me to wish all of you a successful year. I
look forward to either seeing you at one of
our meetings, or reading about you m the
Newsletter, or preferably both.