The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7476 p499
3 November 2007

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• Certificates
• Publications
• The profession
• Supervision (2)
• Community pharmacy (2)
• Pack sizes
• Clinical trials
• Clostridium difficile
• The Journal
• Postgraduate education
• Retention fees

Letters to the Editor

Clinical trials

Skills gap needs to be addressed

From Mr D. P. Sharma, MRPharmS

Tim Mant, director of the Guy’s Drug Research Unit, London, mentions some of the key lessons from the Northwick Park experience, including the role of a clinical investigator (PJ, BPC supplement, October 2007, pB8 (PDF 30K)).

He goes further by mentioning that clinical pharmacology has been downgraded by the medical establishment. One can only view these comments and hope that clinical pharmacology remains a pivotal part of the undergraduate pharmacy degree course.

However, the recommendations for “future needs” as detailed in the final report (as issued by the Expert Scientific Group of Phase One Clinical Trials on 30 November 2006) does explicitly mention that UK schools of medicine and pharmacy “have decreasing opportunities to develop and teach the necessary skills needed by the next generation of phase one clinical trial specialists in the UK”.

Greater co-operation is needed between higher education funding bodies and schools of pharmacy, the NHS and industry if this skills gap is to be addressed.

Dave Sharma
Cambridge

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