Happy Birthday to EAPB! – Second anniversary (350 KB)

A short history of our society
by R. H. Müller, Berlin

20 June 1999 – the idea was born in Boston/Massachusetts

The idea of founding a European society for pharmaceutical biotechnology was born in a hotel room in Boston 302 Newbury Street. Dr. Gesine Hildebrand/Schering AG Germany, Dr. Oliver Kayser and Prof. Rainer Müller, both Free University of Berlin, were sitting together discussing pharmaceutical biotechnology and especially its development in Europe. No European organisation could be identified focussing on this very important area of biotechnology and promoting it. Therefore at 0.32 a.m. in the morning Müller came up with the suggestion: If there is no such specialised organisation, why not founding it?

21-23 June 1999 – 26^th Annual Congress of CRS

Next day the Annual Congress of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) started. The meeting was used to discuss this idea with other European colleagues, the feedback was very positive. The common need was recognised to have one multidisciplinary society specialised in this area. Support came from colleagues such as Prof.D.J.A. Crommelin/Utrecht and Prof.H.E. Junginger/Leiden belonging to the foundation members of EAPB. However, there was also scepticism about a successful establishment of such a society, comments such "We tried this some time ago and did not succeed", "We wish you good luck".

21 June 1999 – the famous TV pub "Cheers" and the LTS dinner

The pub "Cheers" is very well known from the American TV series, the original can be visited in Boston. In the evening the famous "LTS dinner" organised by LTS Lohmann Therapiesysteme at each CRS congress took place in the restaurant of the "Cheers". People were standing at the bar discussing the idea of founding an "European Association of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology". This was the moment the society got its final name proposed by Prof. Matusch/Pharmaceutical Chemistry of Marburg University in Germany. The name should make clear that the society is not focussing on pharmacy, to emphasise the multidisciplinarity, instead using "pharmaceutical" the name should contain "pharma". The name of the society was born: European Association of Pharma Biotechnology (EAPB).

8 October 1999 – an art-déco apartment in Berlin Friedenau

The follow up meeting to discuss details of the foundation of the society took place in the apartment of Rainer Müller in Berlin. Present were – apart from Dr. Hildebrand and Dr. Kayser – Prof. Claus-Michael Lehr from Saarbrücken/Germany and Prof. Gerrit Borchard from Leiden University/The Netherlands. The outline of the constitution was discussed, it should be a society interfacing industry and academia, also promoting exchange between start up companies and the global players. EAPB should also cover regulatory aspects and contribute to educational questions. Membership recruitment should start in January 2000.

March 2000 – each society needs a logo

No society can be founded without having a logo. The logo was created by Hildebrand, Kayser and Müller resembling a plasmid. As European society the logo shows the European colours blue and yellow. The European flag shows 12 stars, the initial EAPB logo showed also 12 symbols, 8 European stars and 4 modified Euro signs. A few months later this first version was slightly modified leading to the present logo.
 

2 April 2000 – foundation of EAPB in the Berlin Hilton Hotel

Foundation of EAPB took place in the evening before the opening of the 3^rd World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology organised by APV and APGI. About 60 European scientists gathered to found EAPB, present were also companies (e. g. Ferring Pharmaceuticals, metaGen) and as scientific organisation the Polish Pharmaceutical Society represented by their president Prof. Umbreit.
Since this time, the EAPB is run by the Board of Governors which consists of 9 Governors. Within this Board the Executive Committee was elected:

President:	Prof. Rainer H. Müller/Berlin (Germany)
1st Vice President:	Dr. Fabio Carli/REMEDIA (Italy)
2nd Vice President:	Dr. Hans Lindner/Ferring (Denmark)
Scientific Secretary:	Prof. Dr. Gerrit Borchard/Leiden (The Netherlands)
Treasurer:	Dr. Oliver Kayser/Berlin (Germany)
Governors:	Prof. Dr. Maria-José Alonso (Santiago de Compostela/Spain)
	Prof. Dr. J.-Pierre Benoit (Angers/France)
	Dr. Wolfram Carius/Boehringer-Ingelheim (Germany)
	Dr. Gesine Hildebrand/Schering (Germany)

May 2000 – launch of EAPB website

The basic concept of EAPB is that it is a pure internet society. The first version of the homepage was launched being designed by Dr. Oliver Kayser/treasurer of EAPB.

September 2000 – first EAPB congress event at the World Biotechnology Congress

In September the World Congress on Biotechnology took place in Berlin. The congress covers the various areas of biotechnology, however the originally planned program did not contain a session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology”. EAPB fully organised and sponsored a session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” being the first event of this kind organised by the new society.

November 2000 – agreement with Vogel Media Group

The Vogel Media Group is one of the largest publishing houses in Europe in the market of subject-specific journals, e. g. the computer magazine “CHIP”. EAPB made an agreement with the Vogel Media Group to publish the “industrial journal of EAPB”, the journal NewDrugs.

December 2000 – membership increases to approximately 130

Within the first half year of existence the membership of EAPB increased to approx. 130, that means 25 corporate members (companies), 4 scientific organisations and about 100 personal members. Personal member number 100 was Prof. Matusch/Marburg University (Germany).

13-15 March 2001 – EAPB at DECHEMA Biotech Meeting

Each year a German biotechnology meeting is organised by DECHEMA. The annual meeting 2001 took place in Leipzig, EAPB fully organised and sponsored the session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology”. It is one of the aims of EAPB to organise pharmaceutical biotechnology sessions in conjunction with biotechnology and pharmacy congresses and meetings.

13-15 March 2001 – EAPB at Bio Forum II in Lodz/Poland

This industry meeting was organised under the auspices of EAPB, topic was “Polish bio business as a partner of international enterprises”.

April 2001 – 1^st anniversary of EAPB, launch of NewDrugs

The first issue of NewDrugs was published. In 2001 four issues with 18,000 copies each were printed. The journal contains the section “EAPB Forum”. In this section EAPB publishes its news, upcoming events and also “company profiles” of its corporate members. The company profiles are free of charge for the corporate EAPB members. Each EAPB member receives a free subscription of NewDrugs.

May 2001 – membership increases to 200

The strong membership increase continued leading to a total of 200 members in May 2001, that means about 30 corporate members (companies) and 170 personal members. The 200^th member joining EAPB was Eike Zimmermann (Berlex Lab. Inc., CA). Within these 200 members were approx. 30 companies and 4 scientific organisations/institutes.

23-27 June 2001 – EAPB at CRS in San Diego

EAPB and Vogel Publisher were present with a stand for the distribution of the journal NewDrugs, about 600 copies were picked up within the 3-day conference.

8-11 July 2001 – EAPB and European Biotechnology Congress

EAPB participated in the 10^th European Congress on Biotechnology in Madrid, one of the organisers was the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB). EAPB and the pharma biotechnologists from EFB organised the session “ Pharmaceutical Biotechnology ”, EAPB provided one invited lecture.

16 July 2001 – EAPB extends to regulatory

In Munich the EAPB President Prof. Müller and the Governor Dr. Stegemann (Capsugel) had a meeting with Dr. Wenzel being the President of MEGRA and PEFRAS (Mid European Society for Regulatory Affairs, Pan European Federation of Regulatory Affairs Societies). It was agreed to establish an exclusive co-operation in regulatory pharma biotech affairs. EAPB provides space in the journal NewDrugs to publish regulatory articles on a frequent basis.

July/Oct. 2001 – Madrid agreement: EAPB and EFB join forces

During the European Biotechnology Congress in Madrid the EAPB and EFB formulated a co-operation agreement to ensure that pharma biotechnology in Europe is represented by only one organisation. This agreement passed the Boards of the two organisations in October 2001. Since this time the EAPB is the "associated section" of "Pharma & Medical Biotechnology" of EFB. All EFB individual members signing in for the section Pharma & Medical Biotechnology are automatically members of EAPB and vice versa. The resources in public relations are joint to promote both societies. EFB is represented in form of Associated Governors on the Board of EAPB, EAPB is represented as a section chairman on the Executive Board of EFB.

September 2001 – clear statement in favour of ES cell research in Europe

The President of EAPB, Rainer Müller, publishes an editorial in NewDrugs 2/2001 in clear favour of free ES cell research including production of new cell lines and the possibility of therapeutic cloning Ü of course in very well defined regulatory borderlines. The legislation in the United Kingdom can be seen as a model for Europe. It is a clear statement that society has also to take the responsibility for suffering patients.

20-22 September 2001 – EAPB pharma biotech session in Poland

The scientific congress of the Polish Pharmaceutical Society was held in Poznan, the session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” was organised by the Pharma Biotech Group of the Pharmaceutical Society being the official division of EAPB. EAPB provided the invited lecture, the meeting took place under the auspices of EAPB.

12 November 2001 – extension of Board of Governors

Dr. Sven Stegemann (Capsugel/Belgium) and Prof. Carmen Evora (University of de la Laguna/Spain) took over the positions of the previous Governors Prof. Benoit/France and Prof. Alonso/Spain. In addition, so-called “Associated Governors” were appointed, Prof. Chmiel (University of Lodz/Poland) and Prof. Hinçal (Hacettepe University, Ankara/Turkey). Prof. Chmiel is the chairman of the Pharma Biotech Group of the Polish Pharmaceutical Society, responsible to build up EAPB in Poland and Eastern Europe. Prof. Hinçal is one of the pioneers in building up pharmaceutical biotechnology in Turkey. His appointment should promote EAPB in this part of Europe.

November 2000/Sept. 2001 – local representation Poland & Eastern Europe

The official pharma biotech group of the Polish Pharmaceutical Society was founded in Warsaw on 29 November 2000. EAPB was represented by the President and the Governor Dr. Hildebrand/Schering AG. It was agreed that this section will be the official local representative for Poland & Eastern Europe of EAPB. The official agreement was signed during the annual congress of the Polish Pharmaceutical Society in September 2001.

21-25 October 2001 – EAPB at Annual Meeting of AAPS

At the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) EAPB was present with NewDrugs distributed via the literature tables and at the booths of the companies Capsugel and OctoPlus, corporate members of EAPB.

October 2001 – EAPB starts co-operation with AAPS Biotech Section: European-US Alliance

The Annual Meeting of the AAPS in Denver was used for formal co-operation talks between the AAPS Biotech Group and EAPB, a co-operation was agreed and first joint activities planned. AAPS was represented by Tom Zioncheck (Genentec) and Sid Advant (Akzo Nobel), EAPB by its President and the Governor Dr. Stegemann (Capsugel). A special aim is to promote regulatory harmonisation in Europe and the US. EAPB will contribute to the first national pharmaceutical biotechnology conference organised by AAPS in San Diego in June 2002.

5 November 2001 – EAPB doubles publication frequency of NewDrugs

At the editors meeting in Würzburg the decision was made to double the number of issues from 4 to 8 per year, each issue having 15.000 copies. This makes NewDrugs to one of the largest scientific industry-orientated journals in Europe.

4 February 2002 – EAPB participates in APV meeting

EAPB made an agreement with the International Pharmaceutical Association (APV/Germany) to participate in the next International Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Biotechnology to be held in Nuremberg in 2004. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the trade fairs Technopharm, POWTECH and ExploRisk. A special session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” will be organised to bring together pharmacists, biotechnologists and regulators. The world meeting will be held under the auspices of EFB.

8-11 April 2002 – EAPB at Pharmaceutical World Meeting in Florence

The three societies A.D.R.I.T.E.L.F., APGI and APV organised the 4^th World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology. A special session “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” was organised, the invited lecture was fully sponsored by EAPB. EAPB was present with NewDrugs 1/2002 distributed to every participant.

On 9 April the EAPB Welcome Reception was held with 80 participants. The second membership meeting after Berlin took place on 10 April 2002.

EAPB membership balance

At the end of February 2002 the society had a total of 272 members consisting of 230 personal members and 42 corporate members, i. e. 38 companies and 4 societies.