The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7351 p662
28 May 2005

Society summary

Gold medals for Tony Moffat and Douglas Simpson

For the first time in 20 years, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council has this year awarded two Charter gold medals rather than one gold and one silver.

The medals go to two retired employees of the Society, Tony Moffat, former chief scientist, and Douglas Simpson, former editor of The Pharmaceutical Journal.

At a presentation ceremony held before the Society’s annual general meeting on 24 May, the President, Nicholas Wood, said that the medals, instituted in 1963, are awarded by the Council on the recommendation of the President. The gold medal recognises outstanding services rendered by a member to the Society or generally in promoting the interests of pharmacy. Two gold medals were being awarded this year “to celebrate the fact of having two Charters in operation during the past year and to celebrate two outstanding pharmacists as recipients”.

Presenting the first medal, the President said that early in his career Professor Moffat had worked in the hospital, community and academic sectors before joining the government’s Forensic Science Services as head of the drugs and toxicology division. In 1994 he was appointed director of pharmaceutical sciences at the Society and from 1998 until his retirement in 2004 he was the Society’s chief scientist. In 1994 he was also appointed the first Royal Pharmaceutical Society professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of London.

He had made an outstanding contribution to the pharmaceutical sciences in his research, in his service on national and international bodies and in enhancing public recognition of the value of pharmaceutical sciences.

His work on the identification of drugs and metabolites had paved the way for international standardisation of many thin-layer and gas chromatographic systems. His work on novel methods for the reliable interpretation of toxicological analytical data had been adopted by the UK Forensic Science Service.

The pinnacle of his work was the publication in 2003 of the third edition of ‘Clarke’s analysis of drugs and poisons’, which he had co-edited. It was the leading text in that field and had received worldwide acclaim for its accurate, relevant and trusted information.

At the School of Pharmacy he had opened the Centre for Pharmaceutical Analysis, which had gained an international reputation for the excellence of its work on near infrared spectroscopy.

He had initiated the world’s first large-scale clinical trials of cannabis as a medicine, and the results of the first trial, on multiple sclerosis, were published in The Lancet.

A huge success had been his setting up of the New Technologies Forum, which he had chaired from the start. The forum allowed the industry and the regulators to discuss new technologies and how they may be introduced in a way that caused no regulatory problems.

Through the Society’s working party on raising the profile of the pharmaceutical sciences, he had helped improve public awareness of the successes of the pharmaceutical sciences. He had written many information sheets for the “Scientist in the high street” campaign.

He received the British Pharmaceutical Conference science award in 1977 and was Conference Science Chairman in 1986.

Much of his work had an international dimension. He had helped organise, had chaired sessions and had spoken at many world-class scientific meetings.

Professor Moffat, in reply, described the award as a “superb honour”. He said that he owed his achievements to those who had provided opportunities for him during his career and to the excellent colleagues with whom he had worked. They had made his life enjoyable. But the person who had helped him most of all was his wife Margaret.

Presenting the second gold medal, the President said that Douglas Simpson qualified from the school of pharmacy at the then Sunderland technical college, where he edited the weekly student union’s newspaper. He then worked briefly in community pharmacy before joining The Pharmaceutical Journal in 1965 as a sub-editor. He went on to become assistant editor in 1973, senior assistant editor in 1981 and editor in 1987. In 1996 he was also appointed editorial director of PJ Publications.

He launched a number of niche publications, all produced within the PJ editorial offices. They include the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, the Hospital Pharmacist and Tomorrow’s Pharmacist, an annual publication aimed at pharmacy students.

During his editorship, he embraced the information technology revolution as it affected periodicals. All editorial processes were fully computerised and the PJOnline website was launched.

The Pharmaceutical Care Awards were his idea. They were launched in 1992, in association with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, as a means of recognising innovation in pharmacy practice.

He also introduced A4 Practice Checklist cards, designed to bring pharmacists up to speed on key developments such as important POM-to-P switches. He made a point of including continuing education material in The Journal every week.

Mr Simpson’s editorship also saw the start of an annual Hospital Pharmacist conference and the introduction of Credit for Learning, a scheme run with the College of Pharmacy Practice to test Hospital Pharmacist readers on their knowledge in the subject areas of clinical articles. The scheme was later used in the same way in the PJ.

After retiring from the Society in 2000, Mr Simpson worked as a freelance pharmaceutical journalist and also produced material for a new website on medicines management and pharmaceutical case. For several years he edited the quarterly newsletter of the Institute of Pharmacy Management, before becoming editor of the monthly Independent Community Pharmacist.

In 2003 he was elected to the Society’s Council where, the President, said, he had been an enormous personal support and continued to work tirelessly to promote the interest of pharmacy.

Mr Simpson, in reply, said that it was a great honour to receive the award and a double pleasure to share the platform with Tony Moffat, who had given him tremendous support when he was editor.

Mr Simpson said that working for the PJ is not a nine-to-five job. One has to be flexible, and so does one’s family. He thanked his wife Janet for giving him the space and the support he needed to do the job. He could not have done it without her backing.

He went on to thank his predecessor as editor, Robert Blyth, who was still a friend, and a number of other former colleagues on The Journal and elsewhere within the Society.