History of the Faculty
The History and Aims of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
Pharmaceutical medicine is a medical specialty concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation, licensing and monitoring of medicines, and the medical aspects of their marketing. Medicines have an increasingly important role in modern clinical practice, and the need for the medical profession to be closely involved in their development and surveillance was recognised by the pharmaceutical industry in the mid 1950's when a small but increasing number of doctors were employed as medical advisers. During the same period hospital - based physicians specialising in therapeutics began to establish the discipline of clinical pharmacology.
In 1963 the setting up of the Dunlop Committee and the subsequent formation of the Committee on Safety of Medicines reinforced the need for specially trained doctors in the pharmaceutical industry, academic departments of medicine and the then Department of Health and Social Security. In the mid 1970's the term "pharmaceutical physician" was first used to reflect the wide range of medical skills required by such doctors. Since then, pharmaceutical medicine (the name now given to the discipline), has gradually evolved. Pharmaceutical and regulatory physicians both have extremely important roles to play in modern medicine. The Association of Medical Advisers in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AMAPI, now the British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians (BrAPP)), was formed in 1957. In 1973 a Training and Education Subcommittee was set up to organise a training course appropriate to the needs of medical advisers. In 1976 the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh, Glasgow and London agreed to grant the first Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine to be gained by examination, and a two year training course for pharmaceutical physicians was started under the guidance of the Joint Advisory Committee on pharmaceutical medicine, with representation from AMAPI (BrAPP), and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). At the BrAPP Annual General Meeting in May 1986 it was agreed that a BrAPP Working Party be set up to look into the possibility of forming a Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. The rapid evolution of the pharmaceutical specialist, and the developing interface between pharmaceutical medicine and other medical disciplines, led to the idea of creating a Faculty within the three Royal Colleges of Physicians, so that criteria would be established resulting in specialist accreditation; thus serving public expectation that new medicines are developed, approved and monitored to the highest standards. On October 26, 1989 the three Royal
Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom jointly established the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and named the first officers and Board Members of the Faculty. At the time of its inauguration, the Faculty comprised 400 members. The succeeding years have seen a growth in membership to just under 1400. An important feature of this growth has been its international character. Just under half the membership is drawn from a virtually world-wide range of countries, the remainder are members based in the United Kingdom. This is consistent with the transnational nature of pharmaceutical medicine, where increasing numbers of new products are developed simultaneously world wide. This has occurred concurrently with the international harmonisation of regulations, and companies merging into large multi-national corporations. The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine is now in a position to widen its influence and reputation within the international medical community, and, as a charitable body, to safeguard the public welfare in this important field of medicine. In April 2002, pharmaceutical medicine was officially recognised as a medical specialty in the UK. Pharmaceutical medicine is a medical scientific discipline concerned with the discovery, development, evaluation, registration, monitoring and medical aspects of marketing of medicines for the benefit of patients and the public health. The Faculty exists to set, maintain and where possible, to raise standards in the practice of pharmaceutical medicine. The Faculty aims to promote the science of pharmaceutical medicine and to develop and maintain competence, ethical integrity and highly professional standards in the practice of pharmaceutical medicine. Information is available on this web site on Membership of the Faculty , Subscription Rates, Faculty Committee Structure and the overall Strategic Plan of the Faculty. Educational activities of the Faculty include Higher Medical Training, Continuing Professional Development and The Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine.