EurAHP Biotechnology Educational Summit

1. EurAHP Biotechnology Educational Summit 3–5 October 2007 The Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort, Malta

2. Welcome and recap • It was a hard day yesterday! • Background information and understanding • Covering safety and all the things we said we would get on to TODAY! • Today is slightly shorter, maybe more familiar clinical trials, cost. • Emphasis that things are changing and we have to change with it! • The rise of the BIOLOGIST, join or get left behind. • Actions from day one!

3. Key areas for thinking, reflection from day one (1) • Pharmacy is at the interface between patient, prescriber and medication. We often are the ‘Scientists’ in practice. We purport to be the ‘experts on drugs’. We should be able to recognise if it is going right/wrong! To do this we need to be up-to-speed on the technologies and the issues. • We are devising a set of questions to help us understand Basic, Intermediate and Advanced understanding of Biopharmaceuticals • There is a clear focus on costs and safety in Hospital Pharmacy involvement concerning Biopharmaceuticals with Pharmacists having an input into the process at many levels. Where should we be and how do we gain the knowledge to input into the system. Do we only need a few specialists… if so what do the rest of us do? Agreed that PHARMACY needs a level of general understanding. • If the three days is a distillation of the knowledge from experts, how do we distil the distillate for local use in dissemination! In this respect its is as valuable to know that it is NOT known! The presenters have considered the concept of KEY information and may be able to hilight and identify what THEY consider to be essential.

4. Key areas for thinking, reflection from day one (2) • Production processes are complicated, it’s a BATCH process which means that batch number ‘ISO’ is critical, maybe we need to record what is given to patients and be prepared to ‘monitor’ patients more closely • So what has happened! Right at the beginning we agreed that you would be taking the ‘pearls of wisdom’ and reflection on how we take this back to practice. Hospital pharmacy is vocational practice, our focus is the patient and the safe and effective use of medicines. This is complex, we need time to see the ‘gold’! In discussions attendees are starting to filter and ‘see’ a way forward in their respective disciplines and countries. • Note that NICE in the UK has emerging equivalent systems in various countries and Pharmacy should have a voice • Amazing that it works at all (Biopharmaceuticals) going to talk about immunogenicity, but there is a genetic load.

5. Key areas for thinking, reflection from day one (3) • We are asked questions like “I’ve left this on the shelf for 10 minutes, it costs 600 euros, can I give it?”, “I noted that I should not shake ‘it’ but I have, will it affect the patient?” • Clearly the technology is fascinating, but the ability to splice, insert and maintain a cell line is 12 years old. As with all ‘new’ therapeutic approaches we are at the start. The potential is huge, but the knowledge of implications in practice is ‘limited’ • Biopharmaceuticals are given Product Authorisations, they are ‘allowed’ on the market, they are assigned to indications, they have a licence for use….but delivery systems are complex (is this the clear role – advising and interfacing in the delivery systems) • When is does not go to plan, it really does not go to plan!!!!