5 years EAPB – the es sential milestones

Mission of EAPB: EAPB is the representative and central network to promote and develop Pharma Biotechnology in Europe, linking academia, industry and regulatory bodies
Time is passing very fast, it is now 5 years that the European Association of Pharma Biotechnology (EAPB) was founded in the Hilton Hotel in Berlin on 2nd April, 2000. The foundation took place in parallel to the 3rd World Congress on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutis and Pharmaceutical Technology organised by the International Association for Pharmaceutical Technology (APV) and the Association Pharmaceutique Galénique Industrielle (APGI). However, the idea to found EAPB dates back to the annual meeting of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) in Boston/Massachusetts in 1999. It was realised that there is a lack of a European-wide organisation to promote the important discipline of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

Membership development
Pharmaceutical biotechnology is a multidisciplinary area. At the beginning this initiative of EAPB was mainly driven by pharmacists. Meanwhile it is a multidisciplinary society uniting scientists from different areas. There were about 60 scientists at the foundation meeting, meanwhile EAPB has more than 1600 personal members. In addition there are corporate members, that means mainly companies but also scientific institutions. Up to date about 50 corporate members belong to EAPB.
Steps forward – EAPB journals
Immediately after the foundation of EAPB a cooperation started with Vogel Business Media, a leading publishing house. The journal NewDrugs for applied sciences was established, NewDrugs was the first official journal of EAPB. This journal focuses on technologies and developments close to the market. Meanwhile EAPB has also its scientific journal for basic research. The European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics established by the International Association for Pharmaceutical Technology (APV) is nowadays also the journal of EAPB.
Scientific and strategic alliances
A very important step for EAPB was the association agreement with the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) arranged at the time when the German DECHEMA hosted the central office of EFB. EAPB became the official associated section for Pharma & Medical Biotechnology of EFB. Another important step were the cooperation agreements between two major regulatory affairs societies in Europe, the Mid-European Group of Regulatory Affairs Societies (MEGRA) and the European-wide Pan-European Federation of Regulatory Affairs Societies (PEFRAS), President of both societies at this time being Dr. Axel Wenzel. The network was completed by an agreement with the biotechnology group of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). Since this time EAPB is also involved in the newly established National Biotechnology Congresses of AAPS.
Special interest groups (SIG)
Membership activities concentrate in so-called special interest groups (SIG). The two major groups are SIGRA and SIGNET. SIGRA stands for special interest group regulatory affairs, SIGNET is the networking group within EAPB promoting cooperation and exchange between mainly industrial EAPB members (companies, scientists in companies).
EAPB central office
EAPB was established in Berlin and has traditionally its central office located at the Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. After the last election EAPB underwent a restructuring process to deal efficiently with the tremendous increase in membership. The position of a General Secretary was created to run the Berlin office.
The future
EAPB will further expand in membership and activities. In the first years EAPB participated in various congresses by organising pharmaceutical biotechnology sessions. In 2004 the first EAPB meeting was organised in Trieste by Dr. Fabio Carli, the PharmaBioTec Europe. The second PharmaBioTec Europe meeting will be organised as a part of the Pharmaceutical Science Fair in Nice (12–17 June, 2005). At present Dr. Sven Stegemann/Capsugel is President of EAPB, leading the society to further growth and increase in engagement in pharmaceutical biotechnology.