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Tuesday 12 December 2017

Developing a Common Health Data Model for Europe

The European Medicines Agency has been holding a 2 day international workshop in London [11th -12th December 2017] to define  opportunities and challenges for a common health data model in Europe. The expected outcome of the workshop was agreeing guiding principles for the development of such a Common Data Model (CDM) in Europe, including key criteria for validation in the context of regulatory decision-making.

See more about the workshop

 
A common data model could help harmonise healthcare data across multiple data sets and provide a mechanism to conduct pan-European studies in a timely manner to address regulatory questions. At the same time, applying a common model to European data has multiple challenges. The meeting brought together regulators with academia, data holders and the pharmaceutical industry.

Sessions included talks from experts from North America and the European region discussing lessons learned and current challenges in very large current clinical data resources, regulatory verification and related issues. Common data model case studies  included Sentinel – the Harvard-based FDA system for accessing patient data from health data partners across the USA and CNODES (the Canadian Network for Operational Drug Effect Studies) which can access data on 100 million patients – a similar scale to Sentinel.


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Sentinel Initiative uses a common health data model to improve the FDA’s ability to identify safety issues for medical products. Sentinel actively surveys pre-existing electronic healthcare data from multiple sources.

Themes at the workshop included ensuring the relevance of CDMs to health policy, keeping timelines short, inter-operability, consent and related ethical issues, and careful internal and external validation of clinical definitions, data, software and analytical models.

From the perspective of health professionals, policy makers, regulators and the public, key future questions include whether clinical outcomes from common data models will be generalisable or only relevant to specific sub-populations based on geography, genetics, demographics and/or complex co-morbidity.  In the era of precision medicine there is the clear need is to avoid “right” answers from the wrong clinical populations and “wrong” answers from the right populations.
Further key points to consider include the cost of CDMs and who should pay; and whether updating existing databases will be sufficient or will new, more robust databases be needed.

 Future EACPT Congresses will be held in:
- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded in 1993 - 24 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.

Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT


Wednesday 22 November 2017

European Medicines Agency to move from London to Amsterdam

After a final round dead-heat vote by member states on Monday 20th November, following the drawing of lots, Amsterdam has been confirmed as the new home for the European Medicines Agency. On current plans, the EMA will be operating in Amsterdam from April 2019.


The EMA's Patients and Consumers Working Party annual meeting
Meantime the EMA's Patients and Consumers Working Party (PCWP) is holding its annual meeting with all EMA eligible patient/consumer consumer organisations to consider relocation preparedness, patient and consumer involvement in EMA activities, highlights from major EMA committees and updates on pharmacovigilance, information on medicines and future work programmes in 2018 and 2019 for the PCWP and the EMA's Healthcare Professionals Working Party.

The European Medicines Agency is concerned with regulation of medicines and other advanced therapies for humans and animals for 28 countries across the European Union.

The EMA has established mechanisms for involving patients in regulatory assessment: patients’ value perception and value systems. The EMA also has an increasing remit to engage with stakeholder organisations and to improve transparency in its activities for the ~510 million citizens of the European Union. Furthermore the EMA has a major role in educating patients, carers and health care professionals about medicines.  

There remain many decisions and actions for the coming months needed to ensure the smooth relocation of the EMA to Amsterdam and either to develop systems to retain UK expertise for the EMA or replace that expertise. For the EMA, these include:
  • maximising staff retention
  • maintaining capacity to continue the work of the EMA 
  • continuing productive engagement with stakeholder groups: patients, carers, healthcare professionals ...
  • maintaining the capacity of the EMA to engage with the public
For the UK, there are pressing questions regarding the future regulation of medicines in the UK post-Brexit, the impact of loss of international influence of UK regulators and other experts on medicines and the impact of loss of biotech and pharmaceutical companies from London to Amsterdam.

Friday 10 November 2017

EACPT 2017 Updates from Vienna


Votive Church, Vienna
The EACPT Executive Committee is meeting in Vienna from 10th - 11th November to plan for future activities.

Key matters for discussion include
 
1. Future EACPT Congresses - the next is due to be held 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.

2. EACPT working groups on Education, Research, Young Professionals, and Regulation and Ethics.

3. Opportunities from links with international organisations such as the European Medicines Agency, IUPHAR, EPHAR and UEMS

4. Opportunities for Individual Associate Members including:
* discounted registration fees for EACPT meetings
* online access to the official EACPT Journal - Clinical Therapeutics 
* networking with colleagues worldwide through the global EACPT network of Associate Members 
* active involvement in EACPT Working Parties and other activities



Back row: Caroline Samer, Switzerland; Donald Singer, UK; Michiel van Agtmael, Netherlands; Ylva Böttiger, Sweden; Jamie Coleman, UK; Pierre Marquet, France; Emilio Clemente, Italy; Markus Zeitlinger, Austria.
Front row: Janne Backman, Finland; Jolanta Gulbinovič, Lithuania; Arantxa Sancho López, Spain; Achim Schmidtko, Germany.
The EACPT Executive Committee meets 6 monthly, with regular interim discussions by teleconference on key EACPT strategy and activities.

 Future EACPT Congresses will be held in: 
- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

The EACPT was founded in 1993 - 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.

Clinical Therapeutics, the Official Journal of EACPT

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.

Tuesday 19 September 2017

Global threat of antibiotic resistance

WHO estimates of impact on mortality from AMR
The European Medicines agency, in partnership with the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), is holding a workshop on global challenges from antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

There are 3 major current approaches to tackling AMR: 
1. reducing selection pressure on microbes to reduce the chance of their developing AMR. This needs strategies to reduce overuse of antimicrobial medicines. 
2. reducing human/human and animal/human transmission microbes. This needs effective infection control measures
3. increasing the availability of new antibiotics through more R & D combined with limiting their use within evidence-based guidelines - ie effective antibiotic stewardship.

There needs to be an integrated approach combining a pipeline of effective new antimicrobial and careful stewardship of existing antimicrobials through their effective use. However from a recent international survey, 20% of the public who took part were unaware that overuse of antibiotics leads to antimicrobial resistance to treatment. Furthermore 44% were unaware that antibiotics are ineffective against colds and 'flu'.

The WHO has estimated that, without major global action, by 2050 there may be ~400,000 preventable deaths annualy in the European region alone, as a result of lack of effective antiobiotics for serious infections.

Martial Plantady from the European Commission opened the day by discussing the EU Action plan launched in 2011 and running until 2016 against the threats from antimicrobial resistance. He noted that many solutions were described within the plan however there remain major challenges to effective implementation of the Plan, including:
- widespread and worldwide antibiotic use for growth promotion in livestock
- resulting need to push strategy to ban antibiotic use in livestock beyond the EU
- availability of animal and human data across member states
- effective surveillance on appropriate and prudent use of antimicrobials in humans
Some solutions include 
- effective dissemination of guidelines on prudent use of antibiotics in animals and humans
- Antibiotic Awareness Days
- more effective coordination of R & D across industry and academic sectors on new antimicrobials, alternatives, vaccines and rapid diagnostic tests
- engagement with key health professional and patient stakeholder organisations
The new EU Action Plan on antibiotic resistance was published in June 2017, with 3 pillars supported by strengthened measures for infection prevention and control:
- making the EU Region a best practice region on AMR
- improving research and innovation
- shaping the global agenda on AMR

At the 68th World Health Assembly in May 2015, the World Health Assembly endorsed a global action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, the most urgent drug resistance trend. Carmen Pessoa da Silva from the WHO underlined the key point that if AMR remains unresolved, the global threat would be enormous both for human health as well as for the world economy. She summarised 5 key elements of WHO strategy against AMR.
1. improved awareness and understanding (annual WHO awareness week)
2. strengthen knowledge through surveillance and research 9WHO Global AMR Surveillance System - GLASS - further report due in Jan 2018 - 47 countries are fully enrolled - 25% of member states)
3. reduce incidence of infection
4. optimise use of anti-microbial medicines
5. ensure sustainable investment for R & D

The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union represents the ~400,000 community pharmacists who dispense medicines for the ~500 million population of the European Union. Around 46 million people visit a community pharmacist every day in Europe.
James Wilkinson discussed efforts of the PGEU to educate community pharmacists and the public in rational use of antimicrobial medicines.


Monday 4 September 2017

Report on the 2017 EACPT Congress in Prague

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. 487 abstracts were presented as 171 oral communications and 316 e-poster presentations were given by delegates from the European Region and around the world.


Delegates by global region
The Congress included 2 plenary sessions, 22 parallel sessions with Keynote Lectures, 5 Oral Communications sessions and 3 Guided Poster Sessions on current issues for research, education and clinical practice on safe and effective use of medicines.  The programme provided an international scientific and educational forum for discussion of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, including personalised pharmacotherapy.

Countries with 5 or more delegates
Themes included the latest developments on effectiveness and safety of medicines, clinical pharmacology in clinical practice, pharmacokinetics/systems pharmacology, including in special populations, innovative techniques, eHealth, biomarkers, education, advanced practices in topics such as drug discovery, drug development, biological therapies, global health with a focus on access to safe medicines, new pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, safety in prescribing and updates on personalised medicines, as well as updates on specific therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, nephrology, oncology, neurology and psychiatry.

Future EACPT Congresses:
- 2019 Stockholm
- 2021 Athens
- 2023 Rotterdam

Number of delegates by region
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.

Thursday 31 August 2017

In memoriam: Professor Giampaolo Velo (1943-2017)

The field of clinical pharmacology has lost one of its pioneers. On August 17, 2017 Giampaolo Velo, cofounder and former chairman of EACPT, died after a period of illness in Verona, Italy.

His research activity started from experimental pharmacology, in particular the area of inflammation, and then gradually moved to clinical pharmacology, expanding his interests to pharmacovigilance, drug information and ecopharmacovigilance.


Prof. Velo was secretary of the Italian Society of Pharmacology (SIF) from 1988 to 1992, chairman of the Section of Clinical Pharmacology of SIF (1994-1996 and 2003-2007) and councilor of IUPHAR, Clinical Pharmacology Division (1992-2000). Cofounder of EACPT, he was vice Chairman (1995-1999) and then Chairman (1999-2003). He was also president of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) from 2003 to 2006.  He was the organizer of
CPT 2000-Seventh Conference on Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Fourth Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, held in Florence, July 2000.


Giampaolo was curious, ironic and full of a contagious enthusiasm, but also accurate and scrupulous if needed.  We can never forget the
scientific events he organized over many years in the beautiful village of Erice, Sicily, as director of the Ettore Maiorana Foundation, in a friendly and collegial atmosphere. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Giulia, his son Stefano, and his daughters Stefania and Elisabetta. EACPT will miss you.



Wednesday 28 June 2017

New bio-therapies for heart failure discussed at EACPT 2017 in Prague

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.

Heart Failure (HF) is a leading cause of death and disease in Europe. Its prevalence will continue to increase worldwide with the ageing of populations and increasing adoption of “Western” lifestyles in less developed countries. Congestive HF is the final consequence of a wide range of disorders of the heart and circulation, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy and heart valve disease.
Professor Jean-Sébastien Hulot

Despite progress in treatments with conventional medicines and devices, there remains a need for new approaches to reverse severity and progression on ventricular dysfunction.

Through an active collaboration with the Cardiovascular Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York (Director Prof. Hajjar) the team of Professor Jean-Sébastien Hulot in Paris is involved in the development of new targeted molecular therapies for heart failure.

In the video below you can hear Professor Hulot discuss highlights from his EACPT Prague keynote lecture on gene therapy and other new bio-therapies for heart failure.

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.



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.

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.

Update from the EACPT Executive Committee meeting in Prague


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.
During the Congress, new EACPT Chair Professor Ylva Böttiger from Sweden led the first meeting of the renewed EACPT Executive Committee, voted in by Council members from the 32 national member societies affiliated to the EACPT.Key issues for discussion included

Key matters for discussion included

- future EACPT Congresses - the next due to be held in 2019 in Stockholm as a partnership between the EACPT and Swedish Society for Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

- EACPT working groups on Education, Research, Young Professionals, and Regulation and Ethics

- opportunities for Individual Associate Members

- new content for members on the EACPT website

The EACPT Executive Committee meets 6 monthly, with regular interim discussions by teleconference on key EACPT strategy and activities


Committee members from Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.
 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.