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ASCPT President Andre Terzic Invites FDA to Work With Leading Drug Research Societies

Meeting Sessions Describe the Potential of Personalized Drug Therapy

On Thursday, March 3, Andre Terzic, MD, PhD, will open the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Orlando with a speech calling on the FDA to work with the leading societies focused on drug development and applications. Terzic, ASCPT's 105th president, is Professor of Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology, and Experimental Therapeutics at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota.

"The American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics would gladly help support any process in which leading professional societies in drug development convene experts to study and make recommendations about the effectiveness of various aspects of the FDA," Terzic says. "Public debate about the development of drugs in the U.S. tends to be largely among individuals and drug company spokespersons. We welcome organized input into this process, involving ASCPT and other leading societies whose members are experts in this area."

ASCPT PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Corporate Influence in Research is the title of a workshop featuring Alastair J. Wood, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, speaking on How Do Medical Journals Cope with Corporate Influence in Research.

The meeting features a panel of distinguished experts debating the proposition: The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Is Good for America's Seniors.

Sessions covering medical topics include:

--  A newly identified substance that kills a wide array of disease-
    causing microbes, pointing toward an answer for the alarming increase in
    antibiotic resistance.

--  A new use for an existing drug to decrease the inflammation recently
    associated with heart attacks and some types of strokes.

--  New findings about Goldenseal inhibiting the body's enzyme activity
    to the extent that its effect on other drugs might be toxic.

--  A new use for an existing drug to treat malaria more effectively than
    current drugs.
    

Sessions on supplements and foods will address:

--  The high level of danger associated with taking diet supplements that
    don't contain the recently-banned ephedra.

--  That people with type 2 diabetes should not take St. John's Wort if
    they use the common diabetes drug rosiglitazone.

--  Parkinson's patients finding it useful to drink grapefruit juice if
    they are taking the drug Cabergoline.

--  A Korean study connecting the eating of hot peppers and other spicy
    foods with the tendency to smoke.
    

The ASCPT annual meeting, being held from March 2 to 5 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, attracts over 1,000 drug development leaders from the U.S. and 25 other countries. It includes over 400 scientific sessions that cover the spectrum of issues in drug discovery, development, regulation and usage. Presentations will integrate the changes that are emerging in the area of personalized drug therapy as a result of decoding the human genome.

MEDIA INFORMATION

Newsroom, March 2 - 5, Swan and Dolphin Hotel, Europe 8 -- 407.934.4316. Fax 407.934.4315

Register online at www.ascpt.org -- go to Annual Meeting/Pressroom, or email kholmay@cpcug.org or call 301-942-9595.

The ASCPT meeting program is at www.ascpt.org.

Hotel Accommodations
Contact the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel, 1500 Epcot
Resorts Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, Florida 32830 -- 888-828-8850

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