The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7372 p527
22 October 2005

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FIP congress supplement available

How to apply for a copy Write to: Emma Kerby-Evans The Pharmaceutical Journal 1 Lambeth High Street London SE1 7JN UK Fax: +44 207572 2504 Email: emma.kerby-evans@pharmj.org.uk

Readers of The Pharmaceutical Journal can apply for their own copy of the supplement illustrated on the right. The supplement covers proceedings of the 65th congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, which took place in Cairo, Egypt, from 2 to 8 September this year.

In the past, the proceedings have been published in The Journal over three or four weeks. This year, instead, we decided to gather the material together in a single supplement. The federation’s secretariat will be distributing copies of it to all those who attended the congress this year, plus other interested parties and members who were not able to attend. Anyone not covered by the federation’s mailing list can request a copy (see Panel above). In due course, the contents will be posted on The Journal’s website but at least until the end of the year the best way to find out what happened in Cairo is to have access to this printed supplement.

So what is covered? Still highly topical is the address from the president, Jean Parrot, about the need to create specialist units to co-ordinate international donations of medicines after disasters such as the Asian tsunami — an address given before hurricane Katrina struck the southern states of the US and northern Pakistan and its neighbours were devastated by the earthquake earlier this month.

The pharmacy practice programme included five symposia on the production, supply and distribution of medicines, As well as looking at the particular problems facing people in developing countries, they revealed that access to high quality medicines is an international problem.

The academic symposium looked at the shift in the curriculum of undergraduate courses from the solid basis in science that used to be the norm and the fact that courses now include practice, social and administrative dimensions. Other speakers at the same symposium discussed the future impact of the electronic delivery of educational material.

Public health not only dominates the political agenda in Britain but is a significant issue in many parts of the world. This was on the Community Pharmacy Section agenda. Once again, adherence and compliance, as well as concordance, were on the agenda: from the importance of being able to measure adherence in practice to clinical topics such as adherence for HIV/AIDS patients and the use of pictograms to improve communication between prescribers and patients.

Different symposia looked at aspects of workforce planning in different countries, ranging from how services in hospital are affected by the pharmacy workforce to the difficulties faced by developing nations when their graduates migrate to countries that offer greater financial rewards.

Another topical subject was raised in a session organised by the Military and Emergency Pharmacy section: preparing for an influenza pandemic. The main speaker described the characeteristics and public health goals of a pandemic in six phases. And, according to this analysis, the world is currently in phases one and two. There were also symposia to suit the scientists within the international pharmacy fraternity: one symposium looked at the pervasive role of biopharmaceutics and dosage forms, and the impact of pharmaceutical biotechnology.

Next year’s congress is due to take place in Brazil and the 2007 congress is scheduled to take place in China.