AAPS Announces Nine Fellowships

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) has announced the elevation of nine members to Fellow in recognition of their professional excellence in advancing the capacity of pharmaceutical scientists to develop products and therapies that improve global health. The announcement was made of Nov. 13, 2016, at the AAPS annual meeting in Denver, CO.

Fellows are nominated by supporters, selected by a committee of their peers, and elevated by AAPS’ Executive Council. The 2016 fellows are:

• Arvind Kumar Bansal, PhD, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), India: Bansal develops technologies to improve water solubility of medicines so that they are more effective for patients.

• Ruggero Bettini, PhD, University of Parma, Italy: Bettini has developed platform systems for better oral controlled drug delivery. He is currently developing medications in form of powder for the administration of antimicrobial drugs to the lung.

• Joan Korth-Bradley, PhD, PharmD, Pfizer, Inc.:Korth-Bradley has implemented methods at Pfizer to study how very sick people absorb and eliminate medications. This information is then used to inform doctors and pharmacists about how to adjust doses so that sick people get correct dosage.

• Andrew Coop, PhD, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy: Coop develops morphine-like painkillers to which people cannot become addicted. Educationally, Coop aims to train the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists to honor and follow the mission of AAPS.

• Barbara Davit, PhD, JD, Merck & Co., Inc.: Davit works on a number of programs developing drugs for unmet medical needs. Her programs include drugs to treat Hepatitis C disease, HIV, cancer, and neurological disorders such as psychosis.

• Wim Jiskoot, PhD, Leiden University, Netherlands: Jiskoot is studying how to make better vaccines and how to better stabilize protein drugs.

• Thomas Schmittgen, PhD, University of Florida: Schmittgen is developing new strategies to treat and detect cancer. One part of his work has been to develop an assay for the early detection of pancreatic cancer that is currently under commercial development.

• Ronald Smith, PhD, Merck & Co., Inc.: Smith designs and develops new drug products incorporating advanced technologies that deliver improved benefits for patients.

• Changquan Sun, PhD, University of Minnesota: Sun works with low dose drugs delivered in the form of oral tablets, and tries to solve the problems which may occur in the manufacturing of high potency drugs and provide long term stability of drug concentration in blood.

Source: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists