The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7305 p811-812
26 June 2004

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BPC 2004 — Manchester

The 2004 meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference takes place in Manchester from Monday 27 to Wednesday 29 September. The overall theme of the meeting will be “Medicines: from cell to society”. The conference is organised by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in association with a number of partner organisations and is sponsored by Boots The Chemists and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry

Medicines: from cell to society — the BPC programme at a glance (PDF 35K)

The British Pharmaceutical Conference this year has “Medicines: from cell to society” as its theme. Over the three days of the conference, this theme will be explored through a series of plenary sessions, and scientific and practice symposia.

Plenary sessions

The conference will begin with a plenary session at which delegates will hear an address by the President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Nicholas Wood. Following that, Sandy Florence, dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of London, will make a presentation on “The changing face of pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy practice” and Rob Horne, University of Brighton, will talk on “Patients with attitude: how scientists and practitioners need to think beyond the biomedical model”.

Other plenary sessions include a symposium on “Genomics: from concept to patient” and a keynote address entitled “Medicines from laboratory to NHS”, which will be delivered by Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Symposia will also cover “Nanotechnology: the science and practice”, which will be covered by Ruth Duncan, Conference Science Chairman, “Stem cells: from laboratory to patient”, “Treating multiple scleroses and providing pain relief”. There will also be parallel plenary sessions on career opportunities in pharmacy for MPharm graduates and preregistration trainees and on the role of drug transporters in drug development and clinical practice.

The conference science and practice award lectures will be given on the Tuesday afternoon. The Harrison Memorial Medal lecture will be given by Bill Dawson, of Bionet. His theme will be “Pharmacy — a bridge between science, industry and practice”. The Chemist & Druggist Practice Research Award lecture will be given by James McElnay, Queen’s University of Belfast, and the Conference Science Award lecture on “Understanding the mechanism of action of biocides: a way to prevent microbial resistance in practice?” will be given by Jean-Yves Maillard, of the University of Brighton.

Pharmacy practice

Highlights of the pharmacy practice programme include symposia on the new pharmacy contract, chronic disease management, supplementary prescribing, repeat dispensing, patient choice, automation, the medicines management evaluation, “Agenda for change”, developments in skill mix, clinical governance and the new general medical services contract.

There will also be a keynote address delivered by Sir Nigel Crisp, permanent secretary, Department of Health, and chief executive of the NHS. He will talk on the changing role of pharmacists in an NHS for the 21st century.

On the Tuesday morning, there will be a “question time” session with the chief pharmacists for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Pharmaceutical sciences

The programme for pharmaceutical scientists has symposia on nanotechnology and nano medicines, genomics, delivery of proteins and genes, imaging in drug development, stem cells and tissue engineering, controlling infection, new biomaterials for use in drug delivery, treatments for multiple sclerosis, targeting drugs in the central nervous system, and using natural products as therapeutic agents. An international panel of speakers has been assembled.

The annual general meeting of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences will take place during the conference on the Tuesday morning.

Venue

The conference is being held in the city centre’s purpose-built Manchester International Convention Centre. The MICC is a short walk from the central shopping district.

Manchester is easily accessible by road, rail and air. By road, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff are all no more than three and a half hours away. There are good rail connections in all directions, and Manchester Airport is nearby.

Exhibition

An exhibition will run alongside the conference throughout the three days in the MICC’s purpose-built exhibition halls. The exhibition will showcase innovation and science, technology and pharmacy practice. Lunches, refreshments, registration and networking areas will all be available in the exhibition hall. Information about booking exhibition space is available from Chris Hanney on 0121 248 3399 (e-mail channey@health-links.fsnet.co.uk).

Social events

All participants will be able to attend a “Welcome reception” on the eve of the conference from 7.30 to 9pm. There will be a conference dinner on the Monday (tickets £45.50+VAT). On the Monday and Tuesday nights of the conference an informal “conference club” will be held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where participants will be able to socialise. A buffet and dance will take place on the Tuesday night (tickets £15+VAT).

A black-tie banquet will take place at the Thistle Hotel for members of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Members of the APSGB wishing to attend should contact Bob Seager on 0116 269 2299, or e-mail apsgb@associationhq.org.uk