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Report of the IUPHAR Membership Committee to the Executive Committee - April, 2005
From: Chairman of IUPHAR Membership Committee (MC)
To: Secretary General of IUPHAR
Report of the IUPHAR Membership Committee (MC) for the period June 2004 to March 2005
This report covers all currently pending applications for membership in Iuphar.
Full Membership
Cuban Pharmacology Society (CPS):
Two and a half years after the first contact have passed, until finally functioning and solid contacts and correspondence with the Vice President of CPS could be established in early 2005 . As a consequence of a respective interchange of informations etc a well prepared application as well as the statutes (in English) have been submitted on 18. March 2005; they are currently under scrutiny by the chairman of the MC prior to being forwarded to the other five voting members of the MC. It is to be expected that the admission procedure will result in a positive recommendation to the Exective Committee of Iuphar in the foreseeable future.
Georgian Scientific Society of Pharmacology (GSSPh):
End of April 1999 the Secretary General of Iuphar received a letter from the vice President of GSSPh, Prof. Nikoloz Gongadze, 7,Asitiani Street in 380077 Tbilisi, Georgia, inquiring about the possibility for GSSPh to become a member of Iuphar. On 1. June 1999 the chairman of the MC mailed detailed requests for further information on the GSSPh and gave guidelines for preparing a respective application for Iuphar membership. Since then there has been no response – and the letter has not been returned as undeliverable. Therefore it is concluded that the GSSPh is no longer interested in joining Iuphar. The GSSPh in due course will be notified that the matter of Iuphar membership will not be further pursued.
Mexican Association of Pharmacology – Asociation Mexicana de Farmacologia – (AMEFAR):
AMEFAR was a Iuphar member until 1997, when as consequence of the failure to pay the previous five annual membership dues it was excluded. Beginning in October 1997 there was correspondence, e.g. also with Prof. T. F. Burks, about conditions of reinstallation of membership. Unfortunately, the correspondence remained unilateral until November 2004. On 11. Nov 04 Dr. Vinicio Granados-Soto, Treasurer of AMEFAR, asked for information about rejoining Iuphar, and he was extensively informed about the admission procedures by the undersigned on November 14th 2004. The respective Email was returned as undeliverable by the ‘mail delivery subsystem’ because of ‘permanent fatal errors’. Finally, as further electronic attempts were futile, an air mail letter was sent on 9.March 2005 to Prof. Granados-Soto, Depto de Farmacobiologia , CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico, DF, Mexico, which so far has not been returned as undeliverable. In summary, it is sufficiently clear, that Iuphar and its MC have done everything possible to have AMEFAR back again as a member society, including even the suggestion of financial concessions. But under the current situtation we should close our files on AMEFAR.
Pakistan Pharmacological Society (PPS):
In August 1998 the PPS was informed by the Secretary General of Iuphar, that it is no longer a member of Iuphar because of failing to pay its annual dues for many years. In May 1999 Prof. Ahmad inquired about the possibility and conditions for re-joining Iuphar. After long respective considerations within Iuphar, the following compromise was mailed on 6. January 2000 to Prof. Ahmad, while PPS was in arrear with a debt in unpaid dues of 2135.- USD:
“IUPHAR is willing to waive the debts so far accumulated and to reinstate the membership. In detail this implies that your treasurer should send the 1998 balance as well as previous and also the 1999 financial balances and the budget for 2000 to the Secretary General of IUPHAR and should at the same time indicate the number of individual members. This survey will give the Executive Committee of IUPHAR the necessary information on which to base a decision about the reinstatement of the Pakistan Pharmacological Society as full member of IUPHAR, possibly at a special rate granted for the membership dues.”
This letter remained unanswered. It was followed in October 2000 by a further reinforcement and intensification, sent to Prof. Ahmad by the undersigned. But also this letter found no reply. As both were not returned as undeliverable, they have reached their recipient. Under these conditions it is recommended to close Iuphar’s efforts to regain the PPS as a full member society.
Ukrainian Pharmacological Society (UPS):
On 23. February 1999 Prof. A. Soloview of the UPS asked for information about the admission procedures to become a member society of Iuphar. After some communicational difficulties (deficient Email connections) the Iuphar statutes and guidelines for the preparation of a membership application were mailed to Dr. Soloview on 1. June 1999. There was no response. Finally in September 2000 Dr. Soloview was reminded to reply to the letter of the MC chairman. But again also this letter did not lead to any result. Therefore it must be assumed that the UPS is not interested in pursuing the original request about Iuphar membership. Hence the files should be closed also on this matter.
Summary on Full Membership Applications:
Of the five pending applications of national societies only one, namely that of Cuba, is promising and will be further promoted. The remaining four appliction procedures should be terminated and the applicant societies notified accordingly.
Associate Membership
American College of NeuropsychoPharmacology (ACNP):
In October 2004 there was a telephone call by Prof. Lew Judd to Iuphar indicating a possible interest of ACNP in Iuphar membership. The undersigned asked Prof. Judd for more details on ACNP but received no answer. After some further enquiry contact with Dr. Oakley Ray, the secretary of ACNP, was established and led to sparse Email conversation. It brought the result, that “the Executive Committee discussed this request and decided that membership in IUPHAR is not related to the ACNP strategic goals, therefore we will not become a member. We are trying to keep our focus clearly on those goals that are of the highest priority and to use our limited resources to those ends.”
Thus there will be no further efforts in bringing ACNP into the family of Iuphar societies.
Arab Union of Pharmacology (AUPHAR):
Its contacts with Iuphar date back to the AUPHAR conference held in Fez, Morocco, in September 2002. Since then there has been a technically as well as conceptually cumbersome exchange, which by now has enlarged the respective file to more than 40 pages without bringing clear conceptions about the adhering national pharmacological societies of the various Arabian countries and their individual membership, the relation of them to AUPHAR, the finances, the supranational activities of AUPHAR etc. Thus we are still in a status that there is no detailed and clear application for membership which could be the basis for a vote in the MC. There is a recent (Sep 2003) letter by the president of AUPHAR, Prof. E. E. Galal, which is rather doubtful about the success of the initiative: “I suspect the answer will not be forthcoming or satisfactory. But whatever data we receive will be passed over to you. The difficulties we face need cooperation and persistence. The difficulties are not unique to pharmacology but involve several other fields on which I have to accept continue to preside over. At the end let me thank you sincerely for your efforts to help, E. E. Galal”. With great satisfaction it is mentioned here that Prof. Mohamed Khayyal has always been a competent and indispensible adviser in this complicated and intricate matter. In short: the question of the associated memberhip of AUPHAR is still open and can only be brought to a successful end by considerably much effort to instill clarity into the currently immature awareness of the structural conditions.
International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (ISCP):
On 3rd September 2003 the undersigned was notified of the intention of the ISCP to become a member society of Iuphar. The respective Email (23. Nov 2003) to the President of ISCP, Prof. William Louis in Australia, intended to establish contact and asking for the necessary informations remained without any answer. Therefore, contact was made instead with the First Vice President, Prof. F. Follath in Zurich, who attended the Executive Board meeting of ISCP last October (2004) in HongKong. The Executive Board decided that the original “application” is not valid anymore and that currently there should be no further activity in this direction. Thus the membership application will not be longer pursued by the ISCP, and the files must therefore be closed.
International Society of PharmacoGenomics (ISPG):
Following a suggestion by our Secretary General, the undersigned informed Prof. Julio Licinio, the President of ISPG, about the formalities of applying for associate membership in Iuphar on 23. November 2003 (!). As there was no response for fifteen months, it was correctly assumed that there is no interest in membership, and this was written to Prof. Licinio on 10. March 2005. One hour later in an ultra-rapid reply Prof. Licinio excused his silence with electronic difficulties and announced that “we < i.e. ISPG>are now revitalising our Society, and we ask that you do not close our file with IUPHAR. If you can be so kind as to e-mail me again the procedures for admission, we will respond in a short time frame.” There certainly might be speculation about the term ‘revitalising’. But nevertheless he was immediately supplied with the requested material by return E-mail. Thus the admission procedure will proceed.
International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP):
First contacts date back to 21. February 2003. But matters were retarded by a long lag phase due to uncertainties in the personal responsibilities within ISoP. The full year of silence ended when Prof. Giampaolo Velo, the new president of ISoP, and the undersigned established personal contact and stratified the future procedural progress to be made. Thus in expectation of a correct, competent and complete application the admission of ISoP seems to be on a promising way.
Melatonin Club :
After the first suggestion of membership in July 2002 (!) the efforts went into a state of dormancy, which continued after a reminder in February 2003. Finally the threat of closing the admission files on 10. March 2005 precipitated an immediate, however negative, answer by Dr. Margarita L. Dubocovich, Secretary of theMelatonin Club, which reads as follows: “Very probably the Melatonin Club will be dissolved in the near future. This is unfortunately, but it is very difficult to maintain such a club without infrastructure.” Thus the application by the Melatonin Club is no longer valid.
Spanish Society of Clinical Pharmacology – Sociedad Espanola de Farmacologia Clinica (SEFC):
On October 13. 2004 our Secretary General reported about the desire of the SEFC to become a F u l l member of Iuphar, which was brought to her attention during the International Congress on Clinical Pharmacology in Brisbane by Dr. Emilio Sanz. In particular, (incidentally during a whale watching excursion) this desire was explained by the fact, that in Spain there are practically two separate pharmacological societies, one basic and one clinical, which consider themselves as national representatives of two widely different “pharmacologies”. On March 18. 2005 the undersigned received a detailed dossier, containing a seven-page application well in agreement with the respective guidelines of the MC, which explains the internal bilateral situation in detail, as well as the six page statutes of the SEFC in English. SECF has 260 individual members and a budget of approximately 600.- Euros. According to the Iuphar Statutes, SEFC would be entitled to one delegate in the Iuphar Council General Assembly, regardless of the fact, whether it will be an associated or full member society. The application will be further processed by firstly submitting it to the vote of the MC. In case of a positivevote it can be anticipated, that the question of membership category will have to be answered by the Iuphar Executive Committee.
Summary on Associated Membership Applications:
Of the above seven societies only one has submitted a sufficiently informative application, which will be further treated by the MC. Two other societies will in all probability submit proper applications in the near future, and the remaining four societies are no longer candidates for membership.
In addition: On 26. October 2004 the associated membership of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) was recommended (with incomplete but valid vote) by the MC to the Executive Committee of Iuphar, which endorsed it on January 25. 2005.
Comment on the Membership Committee of Iuphar (MC):
The performance of the MC is hampered by the fact that two of its members did not respond to the requests for cooperation, transmitted not only by E-mail but in addition by air mail letter. Therefore, it will by analogy be difficult to obtain unambiguous statements from the MC for the Iuphar Executive Committee in the future.
As a consequence it is strongly suggested, that the selection of prospective members of working (in the true sense of the word) committees generally is made on the basis of documented criteria for the factual reliability of candidates for offices in governing and other bodies of scientific societies, before they are made members of such groups.
Marburg, Germany, Easter Sunday, 27. March 2005
Signed: Dr. K. J Netter
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