Pandor announces major research imperative for South Africa

In her Budget speech to Parliament next week, Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology, will be announcing substantial funding for additional scientific research chairs at South African universities, to be released over the next three years.

Speaking at the World Congress of Pharmacology, currently underway in Cape Town, the minister said that it was “time that countries in Africa moved from being someone’s client, to being producers of products”.

“We want to develop commercial products that will address the burden of disease on the continent,” she said. “We have to find our own solutions.”

Pandor said that 157 chairs had already been awarded, and the results had been clear, both in the rapid increase in successful post-graduate students and in the meaningful research that was being produced in South Africa’s universities and research laboratories.

“We know that we have examples of research excellence in South Africa and we also have many significant problems. Our aim as government is to draw the two together, to good effect,” she said.

The minister reiterated that South Africa sees its role as a research leader on the African continent. “Our development will always be accompanied by further steps to ensure that the entire continent advances at the same time.”

Pandor praised the country’s research community for its strong commitment to both basic and clinical science. “We are seeing encouraging moves in translational research where findings from basic science move into practical applications which, in turn, have an impact on the health of our people. This gives us a major competitive advantage.”

Pandor was also encouraged by the increase in clinical testing in South Africa. She pointed to the growing need for antiretrovirals and the planned facility for the local development of active ingredients for ARV treatment. We are making great strides in the treatment of HIV and TB, but Pandor called for more development.

“We are determined to be world leaders,” she said. “Our aim is to provide solutions to the 44 neglected diseases that ravage the African continent.”

Conferences such as WCP2014 were of vital importance, she said, for “the development of the strong and vibrant pharmacology profession we need so vitally for the health of the African continent.”

Guide to pharmacology, on the web

Anyone wanting an illustrative and informed guide to pharmacology should visit the www.guidetopharmocology.org web portal. Here you will find a rich repository of data listing all potential drug targets in the entire human genome. It is an enormous collaboration involving over 800 scientists, organized into 80 subcommittees dedicated to sharing and distributing expert knowledge through this open access resource.

‘It is dedicated to the discovery and understanding of real pharmacology’ says Professor Michael Spedding, Chair of IUPHAR (International union of Basic and Clinical pharmacology), and joint supporter of this project with BPS (British Pharmacology Society). The failure rate in the development of drugs is billions of dollars. ‘The database serves as a crystallised form of new knowledge to prevent failure’.

It is also an opportunity for publications submitted by ambitious scientists to gain recognition, with the database boasting an exemplary high index rating for the number of times articles are cited. Its achievements have earned it a clean reputation, expertly curated by a dedicated team of five . Data is sourced from field experts who are subcommittee members. It is not simply a matter of data trawling , assures Prof Spedding, with so many variables to be considered , an automated systems approach would not afford the same ‘degree of precision’.

‘Accompanying the process of discovery’, the Guide to Pharmacology is a valuable resource for anyone from industry to academia.

 

 

 

Combination of drugs brings hope for Alzheimers patients

Alzheimers disease (AD), often referred to as dementia, occurs after the age of 65, causing the sufferer steady loss of memory as the disease progresses. While new drugs continue to come into focus no treatment is currently available which will stop or reverse the progression of this debilitating disease.

But now, research in the area is gaining ground, as researchers from China gather at the first African-hosted World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology held at the CTICC in Cape Town, to showcase their findings.

Setting new standards in AD treatment, they report how disease outcomes can be improved when tackling it from more than one angle.

“We are seeing some encouraging results,” said Dr Wenxia Zhou from the Memory and Aging Centre based at the University of California. They show that existing drugs, which have been only moderately effective in treating the disease, become highly effective when used in combination with one another. Such an approach is powerful as the disease is caused by multiple factors. Therefore it makes sense to target more than one factor in treatment in order to overcome the disease.

To further illustrate the success of targeting multiple disease-causing factors , Prof Lin Li , from the department of pharmacology at Xuanwu Hospital in China,

has from traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), derived a powerful six herb cocktail mixture known as the Shun-Wu capsule. Having successfully completed phase III trials it is awaiting approval from the Chinese FDA for manufacturing and marketing.

Another approach is monotherapy, but where the active compound hits multiple targets. Leading the way here is Dr Haiyan Zhang from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who is dedicated to finding natural active components with which to treat central nervous system disorders.

Comparing healthy subjects whose biological network is in a steady state to diseased patients where an imbalance has occurred helps researchers uncover nerve cell anomalies. When this happens the cells eventually die. The prime suspects are the sticky proteins called plaques that build up in the brain and twisted strands of neural fibres known as tangles.

By targeting dysfunctional proteins, balance is once again achieved, and all that fades is the memory of those once indelible scars.

 

Strengthening ties between Europe and Africa

The e-Infrastructures for Africa, a programme to strengthen Euro-African cooperation in infrastructure and science, seeks to improve African pharmacology with a portal dedicated to the continent.

The pilot Pharmacological Sciences Gateway under e-Infrastructures for Africa (ei4Africa), was discussed by delegates at the 17th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, which runs from 13-18 July 2014 in Cape Town. The portal funded by the European Union under the EU’s Framework 7 programme provides training and mentorship for African pharmacologists. The portal was developed last year by a consortium of seven African institutions headed by the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology (AiBST) based in Zimbabwe.

Collen Masimirembwa, the coordinator of the initiative told delegates at the Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology that the aim of the portal to is promote research and mentorship of pharmacologists in Africa.

According to Douglas Oliver, Chair of the Pharmacology for Africa (PharfA) initiative, the field of pharmacology, which draws upon how medicines work to treat and manage disease, has seen significant growth on the continent. The PharfA initiative, founded in 2006, has supported pharmacological activities in East Africa, West Africa, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Egypt. PharfA has also been instrumental in supporting the founding of new pharmacological societies on the continent.

The initiative is a legacy project of the Congress, and was announced when South Africa won the bid to host the event, in Beijing in 2006. Masimirembwa, director of AiBST says, they are seeking support and collaboration to make accessible tools for pharmacology research on the portal. The portal will offer training that will ensure pharmacology researchers from the North will collaborate with those in the South and also see marked improvement in to South-South research. The tools include how to write research proposals. “We want to remove physical barriers in research across Africa,” said Masimirembwa.

The portal intends to train post-doctoral students and middle career scientists to become independent research leaders.

There is need to see continued research activity post PhD work, he says The project will start with training on genomics and bioinformatics, bioanalysis, drug analysis and metabolism, clinical trial sciences and a digital library.

Masimirembwa says five experts in each field will be selected to produce content for the website and these will be blended with international researchers. “The pharmacology website must engage African stakeholders so that they see value in this particular platform,” he said.

Masimirembwa says by the end of August 2014, the initiative will seek endorsement from partners and individual donors for the project to continue and nomination of project team leaders. The other issue tabled for discussion before the end of the year is long-term plan for sustainability.

The seven African institutes in the programme are AiBST, University of Nairobi from Kenya, University of Addis Abba in Ethiopia, Muhimbili University in Tanzania, Makerere University in Uganda, University of Ibadan in Nigeria and University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Michael Spedding, Chairman NC-IUPHAR and CEO of Spedding Research Solutions SARL talks about the open source pharmacological research and expert database

Meet the delegates

 

Peter Aziba is from the Department of Pharmocology at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria. He says the conference experience so far has been fantastic. He is attending talks which focus on neurodegenerative diseases in hope of meeting potential collaborators for his work in smooth muscle. He raises concerns for the lack of funding in his department. “ Basic and traditional methods in pharmacology are been neglected,” he says. His hopes are to network and secure funding from advanced nations for equipment and ongoing research in Nigeria.

Dr Kavita Gulati is a speaker from India talking in the ‘Nitric oxide research reveals new ideas in pharmocology’ session. She is from the University of Dehli’s department of pharmocology. Praising the translational value of research presented at the conference, she applauds how “basic research has been applied to clinical conditions ”. Drawing on some of the conference shortcomings, she mentions the shortage of discussion forums, mainly underpinned by the touristic ambitions of many attendees.

 

Dr Jian-Guo Chen is Chair person at the Department of Pharmocology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Vice director of the Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology in China. “I am interested in neuropsychopharmocology , a fast growing field progressing rapidly”. He has found the conference to be very well organized. His conference highlights so far are Stephen Stahl’s plenary talk on psychopharmocology and the Tuesday morning session he attended on neuropsychiatric drug targets chaired by John Cryan.

David Durrant is a delegate from the Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Virginia Commonwealth University. His is interested in pancreatic cancer, and although he says oncology participants make up a very small group , many of the talks he has attended have similarities. When asked about his conference highlights,” Location, ” he smiles widely. Its his first time visiting South Africa.

 

New measures to manage antibiotic resistance sought

 

New measures to manage antibiotic resistance sought

New measures are required to control diseases as the lifesaving power of antibiotics is becoming less effective through resistance due to overuse, experts attending the 17th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology in Cape Town said.

Antibiotics worldwide are becoming ineffective through mutation or the acquisition of resistant genes from other organisms, which in turn leads to resistance to the antibiotics. This has triggered fears of a growing health burden of untreatable diseases.

Marc Mendelson, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa said the rampant use of antibiotics bred the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Mendelson said poor hygiene at hospitals was contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance, tuining simple infections into untreatable diseases.

Adrian Brink, clinical microbiologist in the department of clinical microbiology and infectious, diseases at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, said the uncontrolled acquisition of antibiotics over the counter was compounding the global problem.

Brink noted that appropriate use of antimicrobial agents should not only be done in human, but also in veterinary medicine to curb the development of resistance.

With the prospect of getting new class of antibiotics in 15 to 20 years, Mendelson came up with checklist to rationally use antibiotics.

He said physicians should ask themselves if antibiotics needed at all. They need to ensure that appropriate cultures had been sent for testing and to ensure that the dosage of the antibiotic was correct.

“Antibiotic stewardship in the public and private sectors should be strengthened,” he said.

He suggested that gaps in current knowledge should be identified and the necessary operational research should be undertaken to inform practice. The feedback should be shared with stakeholders to implement change.

Mendelson said academic training in antibiotic stewardship and sharing of antibiotic stewardship information in the healthcare system and civil society was crucial.

 

Lower doses of drugs reduce costs and enhance safety for patients

 

Lowering doses of drugs reduces costs and safeguards health of patients, an expert in antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-limited settings told delegates at the 17th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology in Cape Town.

Gary Maartens, a chief specialist physician and professor at Groote Schuur hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he heads the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, said several studies on selected ARTs had revealed that lower doses were equally effective with lower toxicity.

One such drug was stavudine, which was widely used in the early years of the roll out of ART to low-middle income countries due to its low cost and inclusion in generic fixed-dose combinations. Stavudine caused a lot of toxicity. Several studies had showed that lower doses of the drug were as effective and were less toxic. The lower doses were then recommended in the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), which resulted in fewer cases of life-threatening toxicity. However, the drug’s toxicity was still unacceptable, and it is no longer recommended for first line use. A recent study had shown that doses of efavirenz, which is currently recommended in first line ART, can be reduced with no loss of efficacy and less toxicity.

Despite the evidence that doses of some antiretroviral drugs could be lowered, regulatory authorities and companies seldom change the recommended dosage, he said.

“It is often difficult for investigator-initiated studies to change regulations on approved dosage,” he said.

Maartens was optimistic that more trials would be carried out in future to identify suitable dosages for different populations in different communities. He warned, however, that if the dosage is decreased too much, there could be a risk of failure of treatment.

 

 

Prescription errors shape training of pharmacologists in UK

Less than one percent of the prescriptions written in the UK contain errors, but for medical schools there, this is enough of a concern to result in the updating of curricula to curb the attendant risks, a pharmacology teaching expert told delegates at the 17^th World Congress of Pharmacologists in Cape Town. Simon Maxwell, a professor of Student Learning Pharmacology and director of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics teaching at the University of Edinburgh in the UK said prescription writing is an important challenge for medical education.

Maxwell said wrong prescriptions could sometimes lead to fatalities. The reasons for the errors have been identified to includechallenges associated with making the correct diagnosis, long working hours that leave medical staff fatigued, and a lack of support from senior medical doctors.

In the UK, 1 billon prescriptions are written annually with an average of 45 000 of these prescriptions containing errors. Maxwell said most of these prescription errors are made by junior doctors.

He said that to optimisetraining of the pharmacologists to deal with this problem has beenidentified as a priority. The problem was also exacerbated by the large number of medicines that have becomeavailable as well as rapid changes in the ways new drugs are used, which made the job even harder.

In an attempt to highlight the extent of the problem, Maxwell and two colleagues undertook a random study, published in the 2008 British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, ‘Undergraduate preparation for prescribing: the views of 2413 UK medical students and recent graduates’.

The majority, 74%, felt that the amount of teaching in the area of discharging prescriptions was ‘too little’ or ‘far too little’. When asked if they were confident that they would be able to achieve the prescribing competencies set out by the General Medical Council, only 29% felt confident about their abilities.

The result of those findings has been a change in the way that prescription skills are taught.

To tackle the problem in the UK, Maxwell said a safe prescribing working group had been established and clearly defined outcomes related to prescribing of medicines were set.  A national eLearning strategy, which tackled prescribing skills, assessment of prescriptions and problem solving skills had been developed.

Maxwell recommended that national prescriptions assessments should be carried out in all countries to ensure clinical governance and a high standard of prescription. He said some countries were already carrying out assessments on prescription problems and gave the example of Nigeria as having produced an excellent study.

Read the paper in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

 

 

 

More research to tackle antibiotic resistance needed

Research that produces novel innovations and drug formulations is needed to tackle the escalating difficulties experienced with disease-causing microbes that have become resistant to antibiotic drug therapy, which has raised the public health burden, said South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Health Dr Mathume Joseph Phaahla.

Phaahla officially opened the 17th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology on 13 July in Cape Town, South Africa.

Phaahla said for 25 years no new antibiotic classes have been developed,while antibiotics resistance has been a rising problem worldwide.

“Adherence to treatment is critical to success of treatment but novel innovations and improved drugs formulations could solve the antibiotic drug resistance problem,” he said.

Phaahla said more research could drive better treatments for malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and Aids some of Africa’s pressing health problems, and the rising scourge of non-communicable diseases.

He said, robust drug testing and good clinical practice matched with relevant infrastructure was a required for the research to produce meaningful results.

The congress, the first to be held on the African continent, runs from 13-18 July 2014 at Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa.

The congress whose theme is ‘Cutting Edge Pharmacology,’ will have almost 100 sessions and workshops, and 1200 posters on display.

Pharmacology – a field which draws upon how medicines work to treat and manage disease – brings together pharmacologists, researchers in both the fundamental simple mechanisms of medicines to design and discover new drugs, and the therapeutic proven application of medicines in healthcare, to optimise the usage of medicines.

Douglas Oliver, WCP2014 president said as countries battled to meet the challenges of the Millennium Development Goals there was a growing need to build capacity in attending to global health challenges.

He said the congress provided opportunity for young generation of pharmacology researchers to meet new collaborators and exchange ideas.

Two thirds of the delegates are young researchers. Almost 2000 delegates from 90 countries are globally represented out of which 18 countries are African represented by 500 delegates.

Christiaan Brink, WCP2014 secretary-general, said the ‘Pharmacology for Africa’ (PharfA) initiative had become the vehicle to developed pharmacology on the African continent. Pharmacology Societies now exist in Egypt, West Africa, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

Patrick Du Souich, president of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology said the objective of the congress was to further research in medicines to improve therapeutic outcomes.

“Both basic and clinical pharmacologists need to work together to ensure the science’s optimal contribution to health,” he said.

The congress brings together health care professionals, academics, researchers, educators , medicine regulators and policy makers from diverse arenas, including medical, pharmaceutical and other healthcare disciplines, pharmaceutical industry, governments and non-governmental organisations from around the globe