The 137th meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference takes place at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, from Sunday, September 10, to Wednesday, September 13. The overall theme will be "Medicines: the future horizon"
The main innovations at the 2000 British Pharmaceutical Conference are that, for the first time, the proceedings will start on a Sunday and attendance on that day will be free to all participants.
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Further information
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The ICC is in the heart of Birmingham's leisure quarter set around the rejuvenated canal network |
This year's venue is Birmingham's International Convention Centre, situated in a city centre area that offers theatres, art galleries, concert venues, restaurants and jazz clubs. The ICC is adjacent to Centennial Square, where on September 9 and 10 the Birmingham Arts Fest will take place as the conference starts.
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Plenary sessions Sunday sessions will include the practice research award lecture, a young scientists' symposium and a discussion on electronic commerce and its effects on development, supply and prescribing.
Monday's plenary sessions will include the Science Chairman's address (by Professor Martyn Davies) and "New medicines: what, when and how", with contributors representing health economics, the pharmaceutical industry and patients.
Sessions on Tuesday will include an address by the Society's President. A health minister has been invited to speak on the Government's priorities. Other sessions will cover pharmacy's role in developing and delivering standards and guidelines and a range of "hot topics", including cloning, genetically modified medicines, sexual health strategy, remuneration issues, and the pharmacist's developing role in primary care groups and primary care trusts.
Plenary sessions planned for Wednesday include an address on Government priorities for science, a debate on professional performance and self-governance, a session on the public understanding of science and a joint science and practice session on genetics.
Professional programme The professional programme will have a daily theme. Sunday, when the theme is "The future of pharmacy in the new NHS", will have sessions on the community pharmacy strategy, on community pharmacy and public health (including smoking cessation, preventing teenage pregnancy and working in a health action zone setting) and on tackling chronic disease. Sessions for hospital pharmacists will look at unified drug budgets and the role of clinical technicians. The programme will also include practice research sessions.
Monday will focus on "Health technology: development and assessment", with joint primary and secondary care sessions on clinical effectiveness and evidence-based pharmacy, looking at the effect on pharmacy of agencies such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Community pharmacy sessions will cover controlling the drug budget and improving access to care. There will also be industrial pharmacists' sessions, more practice research sessions and a half day for pharmacy students.
Tuesday's theme will be "Balancing priorities and outcomes". Two sessions on "The pharmacist and service frameworks" will examine the development of drug guidelines and standards (with case studies in coronary heart disease and cancer) and medicines compliance (with case studies in mental health and asthma).
Professional sessions on the final day will cover complementary therapies and pharmacy ethics.
Science programme The science programme will examine the implications of rapid advances across the pharmaceutical sciences. On Sunday a plenary session on "Medicines for the new millennium" will set the scene for a range of symposia. The meeting will open with a symposium for young scientists and the presentation of the Glaxo Wellcome international achievement award.
Monday will see a full-day symposium on "New chemical approaches to cancer chemotherapy" plus morning symposia on "Barriers to drug delivery", "Lab on a chip", "The global threat of multi-antibiotic resistance" and afternoon symposia on "Emerging therapies in controlled release" and "Novel approaches to find new antimicrobial targets". The afternoon will include the science medal lecture.
On Tuesday there will be a full-day symposium on "Biopharmaceutical issues in drug therapy", plus morning symposia on "Innovative delivery systems: premarket developments", "Modern approaches to particle characterisation" and "Nanotechnology in the pharmaceutical sciences", and afternoon symposia on "Innovative delivery systems: at market" and "New approaches to the characterisation of dosage forms". Also on the programme will be the Astra Zeneca industrial award lecture.
Wednesday will feature the Harrison memorial award address and symposia on "Genetic factors in drug therapy" and "New materials and processes".
Throughout the four-day event there will also be lunchtime discussions (covering such areas as technology transfer and national initiatives in drug delivery), sessions for short papers on pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical analysis and materials science, and poster sessions for contributions across the range of pharmaceutical sciences.
Exhibition The conference is this year combining with the Pharmacy Live exhibition, which takes place on September 10 and 11 in the ICC exhibition hall.
Social programme The conference social events will begin on the Saturday evening with the traditional welcome reception. On Monday, there will be a conference banquet at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The less formal Tuesday social event will be a "sealife evening" at the Birmingham Sealife Centre. There will also be an informal conference club, with cash bar and disco, each evening.
Contributions are invited for the conference science sessions. A contribution should relate to original, previously unpublished work in those sciences that contribute to the development and evaluation of medicinal substances and associated topics and usually will be a self-contained report of a complete piece of research, or a report of work in progress. Contributions should fall into one of the following categories: analytical chemistry; bioanalysis; biochemistry; biopharmaceutics; drug delivery; drug design; drug metabolism; medicinal chemistry; pharmaceutical analysis; pharmaceutics; pharmacognosy; pharmacokinetics; pharmacology; and toxicology.
All contributions will be entered for poster display. Some contributions will be selected for oral presentation at specific science sessions, and authors will be advised.
Posters will be scheduled for display on one of the first three days of the conference. The date of display will depend on the subject matter. Display will be from 10am to 6pm and posters must be attended from 5pm to 6pm. For each poster, an area 2m wide and 1m high will be made available. Posters should be complete in themselves, and their lettering should be readable at 2m.
Submissions accepted for presentation will be published in the September supplement to the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, available at the conference.
Making a submission Abstracts should preferably be submitted in electronic form, either on a diskette or as an e-mail attachment. Because the intention is to publish the abstracts without alteration in the supplement to the JPP, they must be prepared to a high standard, conforming to the style of the JPP and complying with specified requirements with regard to text area, type size, type face, spacing, layout of tables and inclusion of figures. Full details of the requirements for presentation and for electronic submission are available on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's internet website (www.rpsgb.org.uk/330.htm).
Inquiries about science contributions may be addressed to Dr John Clements, BPC Science Secretariat, Room 403, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7735 9141; e-mail bpcscience@rpsgb.org.uk). Abstracts should be submitted to Dr Clements either as e-mail attachments or on diskettes, which should be clearly labelled with the contributor's name, address and e-mail address.
The closing date for receipt of all submissions is April 29.
Acceptance The suitability of a contribution for presentation at the conference will be decided by appropriate evaluation panels appointed by the Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Joint Pharmaceutical Analysis Group, and the UK and Ireland Controlled Release Society, as soon as possible after the closing date, and the corresponding author will be informed.
Contributions are invited for the pharmacy practice research sessions of the British Pharmaceutical Conference in 2000. Intending contributors are invited to submit oral presentations or posters on original research into, or demonstrations on, any aspect of pharmacy practice, including the provision of health care and the management of resources.
Submissions will be accepted in three categories: practice research (adjudicated on the basis of demonstrating a research methodology, with conclusions supported by the described findings); practice development and audit (adjudicated on their relevance to the audience attending the conference and on the completeness of the work); and research in progress (submissions that represent novel and interesting research approaches but which may still be incomplete).
Posters will be on display throughout the conference. Opportunities for poster presenters to talk about their work will be built into poster discussion sessions in the programme. Contributions accepted for presentation will be published in a special supplement to The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Further details and submission forms providing full instructions for contributors are available from Ms Cathryn Andrews, BPC Practice Research Secretariat, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7820 3399 ext 276; e-mail candrews@rpsgb.org.uk).
The closing date for receipt of all submissions is March 31.
Applications are invited for the 2000 Conference science medal from scientists world-wide who are under 35 years of age on March 31, 2000, working in a pharmaceutical or allied discipline in industry or academia, who have a proven record of independent research and whose published work shows outstanding promise.
Those wishing to apply should send in a full curriculum vitae listing their name, age, education, appointments held and their research responsibilities. Candidates should list all forms of publications already accepted, including patents, consultancy reports and teaching packages. When listing jointly authored work, candidates should give all authors' names and the candidate's contribution as principal investigator or co-investigator. Candidates should list research students who have worked for them and their thesis titles and dates, instances of research co-operation giving details of research grants awarded and the candidate's role, invitations to speak at conferences in the United Kingdom and overseas, lecture or symposium titles, and prizes and awards. A brief résumé of the candidate's research (about two pages), indicating discoveries made, with relevant publications attached (no more than 10), should be sent with the CV.
The successful applicant (to be announced at the 2000 Conference), will receive £500 and a medallion, and will be invited to present a lecture on his or her work at the Conference in 2001.
Applications should be made to Dr John Clements, BPC Science Secretariat, Room 403, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN. The closing date is March 31.
Applications for the 2000 British Pharmaceutical Conference practice research award are invited from researchers world-wide who are working in pharmacy practice health service research or a related discipline, who are based in academia or practising in any branch of the profession, who have a proven record of independent research and whose published work shows outstanding promise.
Applicants should send in a full curriculum vitae listing their name, age, education, appointments held and their research responsibilities. Candidates should list all forms of publications already accepted, including reports and teaching packages. When listing jointly authored work, candidates should give all authors' names and the candidate's contribution as principal investigator or co-investigator. Candidates should list instances of research co-operation, details of research grants as awarded and the candidate's role, lectures given by invitation, prizes and awards. A brief résumé of the candidate's research (about two pages) indicating advancements made with relevant publications attached (no more than 10) should be sent with the CV.
The successful applicant (to be announced at the 2000 conference in Birmingham) will receive the sum of £500 and an award, and will be invited to present a lecture on his or her work at the BPC in 2001. Chemist & Druggist is sponsoring the event.
Applications should be made to Ms Cathryn Andrews, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN (tel 020 7820 3399 ext 276; fax 020 7582 4985; e-mail candrews@rpsgb.org.uk). The closing date is March 31.