uic pharmacist, fall 2010

Pharmacist

Fall 2010 ￭ Volume 34, Number 3

Norman Farnsworth masters nature’s pharmacy

Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research alters the industry’s trajectory

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Pharmacist

Fall 2010 ￭ Volume 34, Number 3

Table of Contents

coverIllustration by Philippe de Kemmeter. Read more about this image on page 14.

In Every Issue

03 Dean’s Message

04 News Flash

06 Rising Stars

07 Award Goes To . . .

08 The Rockford Files

09 Brilliant Futures

18 Gallery

19 Class Notes

22 Alumni Spotlight

23 Obituaries

24 Over the Counter

26 In the Loop

In This IssueThe Baron of Botanicals 12With more than a half-century of award-winning accomplishment, Norman Farnsworth has become known for unmatched expertise in his field, a never-ending sense of curiosity and a work hard, play hard ethic.

Drugs on the Market 15A pioneer in its field, UIC’s Center for Pharmacoeconomics Research gives pharmacists the tools to build a better health care model by weighing cost against benefit.

A Publication for the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends

UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy | 1

PublisherJerry L. Bauman,bs ’76, res ’77, pharmd

Dean

EditorJessica A. CanlasAssistant Director of Communications

Contributing EditorsHugh M. CookSamuel Hostettler

PhotographyBarry DonaldRoberta Dupuis-DevlinKathryn MarchettiBen Stickan

DesignerKimberly A. HegartyUIC Office of Publications Services

College of PharmacyAdministrative Officers

Department HeadsWilliam Beck, phd

Biopharmaceutical Sciences

Judy Bolton, phd

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Nicholas Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73Pharmacy Administration

Janet Engle, pharmd ’85Pharmacy Practice

Vice Dean, RockfordRegional ProgramDavid W. Bartels, pharmd

Executive Associate DeanJanet Engle, pharmd ’85

Associate DeansClara Awe, phd, edd

Diversity Affairs

James Bono, mha

Business Development and Administrative Affairs

Marieke Schoen, pharmd ’88Academic Affairs

Steven M. Swanson, phd ’90Research

Thomas TenHoeve III, phd

Student Affairs

Assistant DeansDebra Agard, pharmd ’92, mhpe

Student Affairs

Suzanne Rabi, pharmd ’04Academic Affairs

Jean Woodward, phd

Student Affairs

UIC Pharmacist833 South Wood Street (MC 874)Chicago, Illinois 60612Phone: (312) 996-7240Fax: (312) 413-1910E-mail: [email protected]©2010. All rights reserved.

UIC Pharmacist would like to hear from you, and we welcome your letters:

UIC Pharmacist833 South Wood Street (MC 874)Chicago, Illinois 60612Phone: (312) 996-7785

E-mail: [email protected]

Letters are edited for length and clarity. All reader correspondance to the magazine and its editorial staff will be treated as assigned for publication unless otherwise specified.

>editorialcredits

UIC PHARMACY ONLINE

| UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy2

>inbox

Dean Bauman:

I appreciated your comments in the recent edition of UIC Pharmacist. I share your concern about the proliferation of pharmacy schools and the effect on quality and employment opportunity. To further comment on your fine presentation of the issues, I would add the concern I have for the students in college now who are coming on stream over the next six years. I often encounter new grads that are heavily leveraged with six-figure debt before they have their first job. This is especially true of the grads of some of the private schools that have emerged in the last 15 years. This kind of debt load is a formidable challenge for anyone, but especially new grads on the threshold of their careers. What I see is that many of these new grads are forced to make career decisions driven by the need to retire debt, rather than seeking their unique niche in our profession. Unfortunately, this often spawns predatory recruiting schemes by companies hiring pharmacists. With an almost-certain leveling off of salaries in the near future, retiring debt and navigating the job market will be even more difficult for many of the best and brightest men and women to ever enter our profession.

Thanks for having the courage to address this issue. It needed to be said.

Michael A. Harris, bs ’70

No more new pharmacy schools in Illinoiswww.facebook.com/UICCollegeofPharmacyConnect with alumni, students, and faculty. Find out what’s going on at the College and on UIC’s campus and post your updates.

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find at bit.ly/UICPharmacistRead the full-text issue of your favorite alumni magazine online!

www.uic.edu/pharmacyVisit our online home for the COP Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs! View our calendar and register for events online.

www.twitter.com/uicpharmalumniFollow our feed to keep up with COP happenings and pharmacy and health care industry news.

bit.ly/uicpharmalumniNetwork with the best in the business —COP alumni making their mark in the field, award-winning students, and faculty advancing the practice. Find job listings and post your company’s openings.

At UIC, the College of Pharmacy is administratively and fiscally responsible for the pharmacies in the University of Illinois Medical Center, and through this for-profit side of the College, I have discovered a principle that many of you already

know. That is, there is very little money in drugs—at least as prescribed, dispensed, and administered in the traditional and legal sense in the United States. (As an ironic aside, there appears to be considerable money in drugs dispensed illegally). Most drugs are still reimbursed by payors at an average cost figure (historically AWP, now ASP) plus a “dispensing fee.” I guess this dispensing fee, tied to the drug product, is intended to provide for all the professional services that the pharmacist renders. As I see it, there are a number of problems for the profession with this approach: 1) the margins are razor-thin and getting thinner, making economic viability difficult for many; 2) there is an inherent conflict of interest, in that as pharmacists render more patient-care services, the financial incentive is to use more drugs (similar to the inherent conflict of interest present when a physician prescribes and dispenses medication); and 3) the revenue flow and emphasis of care for the profession remains concentrated on the drug product, not patient-care services.

It’s time to unbundle the reimbursement of the drug product from the care the pharmacist provides. I would suggest payors reimburse the pharmacy for the actual cost of the drug to the pharmacy (plus, perhaps, a small handling fee for storage, inventory costs, overhead, etc.). Frankly, I’m tempted to suggest we actually give up the “profit” on drugs, what little there is at present. Then professional/clinical services provided by the pharmacists, such as counseling, diabetes care, asthma education, and other services, would be billed separately and paid for by different and separate mechanisms. For this to happen with patients under Medicare Part B, pharmacists would have to be designated, through legislation, as “providers.” Currently, Medicare Part B providers are physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, chiropractors, physician assistants, certified nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, psychologists, nurse midwives, and social workers (read: nearly everyone)—but not pharmacists. Unbundling creates a scenario where the emphasis would be properly placed on the professional services provided in the care of patients by their pharmacist and not on the drug product. Pharmacists could actually be paid for seeing to it that an unneeded drug is discontinued, rather than focusing on filling as many prescriptions as humanly possible in a day. Perhaps the profession of pharmacy could possibly learn from our optometrist colleagues. As I understand, at one point in time, their clinical revenue was tied to the dispensing of eyeglasses. But their professional services were eventually uncoupled from the product so that now, optometrists bill for diagnostic and therapeutic services separately from eyeglasses; indeed, opticians may dispense and bill for eyeglasses.

I want to be clear that it is crucial that pharmacists remain the gatekeepers to drugs in society, a role that underpins our profession. So, pharmacists must still be responsible for the safe distribution of drugs and the filling of prescriptions. Let’s just get paid differently. I would argue that this proposed change in the way pharmacists are paid would not only be, at least, cost neutral in the United States (for payors and governments), but it would drive the profession toward the goal we were all trained to accomplish—provide better patient care and optimal drug therapy for those who are ill. The competition between pharmacy providers should be on the basis of the quality of patient-care services provided, not on the cost of the product. I realize these thoughts may not be popular throughout all facets of pharmacy as some still make considerable profit on the product. But my dream is, someday, when I visit my neighborhood pharmacy, I will see our alumni counseling and providing patient care instead of being buried behind the counter filling prescriptions as fast as they can. I hope they will have made this choice not only because it is their professional passion—and it’s what we taught them to do—but also because they followed Willie Sutton’s law: “It’s where the money is.”

*Written with the capable review of our expert faculty in pharmacy payment: JoAnn Stubbins, Edith Nutescu, and Sandra Durley

Jerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, pharmd, fccp, faccDean and Professor

From the Dean

3UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy |

Time to change the way pharmacists are paid*

m

4 | UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy

News Flash

UIC leads Chicago Consortium to study effectiveness of health servicesSam Hostettler

A consortium of Chicago institutions coordinated by UIC is one of 11 new centers nationwide designated by the Department of Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to support research on patient-centered outcomes of health care with a focus on comparing clinical effectiveness.

Among 13 groups initially chosen in 2005, the Chicago group is one of only three to be selected for the second phase of the Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness (DEcIDE) program. The 11 DEcIDE centers will compete amongst each other for agency projects.

The Chicago consortium’s primary members are UIC, including the Colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine, and Nursing, the School of Public Health, the UIC Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research*, the Institute for Health Research and Policy, and the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences; the University of Chicago; Northwestern University; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Management of Complex Chronic Care and Pharmacy Benefits Management Services; and Blue Cross-Blue Shield.

Glen Schumock, professor and director of UIC’s Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research,

will coordinate the local network. Simon Pickard, UIC associate professor of pharmacy administration, and David Meltzer, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, will serve as deputy principal investigators.

The AHRQ initiated the DEcIDE centers to assist the federal government in evaluating the Medicare Part D drug benefit. The mandate for such evaluation was included in the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.

The Chicago DEcIDE Center has completed five projects since its inception. One developed a way to identify which drugs most needed further study of their off-label use and offered a list of 14 top-priority candidates. Another researched the effectiveness of drug therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

*For more information on the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research, please turn to page 15.

Increase revenue, not overhead

Maximize your existing inventory and operations

Achieve worry free compliance.

Reduce drug costs for eligible patients/employees.

Good for your pharmacy. Good for your community.

Steve Zielinski RPh | 815-980-7468 [email protected] visit www.SUNRx.com.

SUNRx-UIC Ad.indd 1 8/3/10 11:00 AM

mmNumbers Up!

24Average age of

incoming P1 class

24 and 5Residents and fellows

115,500Class of 2010 average

starting salary

33Class of 2010 members

pursuing residencies after graduation

3College’s ranking in

federal funding

9College’s ranking among U.S. News & World Report’s top

pharmacy schools


News Flash

Master of Sciencein Health Informatics

Leverage your pharmacy background

The only master-level health informatics program accredited by CAHIIM*

Graduate in as few as 24 months

Current PharmD students: only one-year of additional course work (joint-degree)

“Pam Bullington MS, Health Informatics ‘06Walgreens Corporation

“I now help develop computer-based patient counceling programs for retail pharmacists.”

Phone: 1-866-MSHI-UIC(674-4842)Email: [email protected]: www.healthinformatics.uic.edu/lp-pharm

The program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). UIC is also regionally accredited by The Higher Learning Commission.

Master of Sciencein Health Informatics

CE program merits ACPE approval

In June, the College of Pharmacy was reaccredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a provider of continuing pharmacy education through June 30, 2015. The ACPE is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the accrediting body for pharmacy schools nationwide. The College of Pharmacy’s PharmD program has been ACPE-accredited since 1982. Previously, its BS program had been accredited by ACPE since 1937.

Caitlyn Wilke, PhD candidate in pharmacy administration, was awarded the Stanley A. Edlavitch Award for the Best Student Abstract submitted for the 26th International Conference from the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology.

PhD candidate in pharmacy administration Shengsheng Yu was the recipient of the Best Student Podium Presentation Award at the 15th annual meeting of International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outomes Research. The title of her presentation was “Confounding Effect of Age in the Association of Cardiovascular Risk and Dietary Supplement Use among U.S. Adults.”

Pharmacy administration graduate students (from left to right) Sacheeta Bathija, Sruthi Adimadhyam, Yoojung Yang, and Fang-Ju Lin, pictured with team coach Caitlyn Wilke (center), won the third-place award in the Student Research Competition at the 15th annual meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Fourth-year professional student Candy Ng is the recipient of a 2010 Kappa Psi Foundation Scholarship. Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity is the world’s oldest and largest professional pharmacy fraternity.

At the 2010 Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) National Conference, UIC’s chapter was recognized for coordinating events under the HIV/AIDS Remember the Ribbon, Diabetes Mellitus, CKD, Operation Immunization, and Power to End Stroke initiatives and was also named the winner of the diabetes logo competition. Nicole Avant (left) was awarded the regional Walmart/NPhA Future Leaders in Pharmacy Award and the Fowler Endowed Scholarship. She was also appointed SNPhA’s National Financial Secretary. Finally, two UIC SNPhA teams—Monica Wiley/Nicole Avant and Ben Le/Nicolette Stewart—received certificates for participating in the clinical skills competition.


Rising Stars

PharmD students (from left to right) Hari Patel, Chris Campbell, Tammy Nguyen, Sneh Mody, and Zoe Clancy finished among the top ten in the Chicago City Treasurer’s Small Business Plan 2010 competition with their idea, MobileCare RX. Planned as an extension program of independent, Chicago-based Norwood Pharmacy, the MobileCare RX concept is a mobile medical trailer staffed by pharmacists who strive to create accessible, friendly, and effective on-site health care to employer groups.

Join us for this two-day competition and lecture sabbatical, which will feature our students presenting nearly 75

scientific posters for our faculty, alumni judges,

and guest speakers. This year’s guest speakers will be international

authorities in the areas of pharmacogenomics and

quorum sensing.

College of Pharmacy Research Days

February 24–25, 2011

Interested in judging? Please contact Ben Stickan at

(312) 636-7491 or [email protected].

SNPhA merits multiple honors

Mobilecare Rx places in top 10

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Award Goes To...

Alan Lau, professor of pharmacy practice, was named a Distinguished Practitioner in Pharmacy by the National Academies of Practice (NAP). The honor is granted to individuals deemed by a panel of distinguished peers to have made enduring contributions in their profession.

Sandy Cuellar Puri, pharmd ’01, clinical oncology pharmacist and clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, was elected secretary/treasurer of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Hematology Oncology PRN.

Edith Nutescu, pharmd ’94, clinical professor of pharmacy practice and pharmacy administration, and clinical manager of the Antithrombosis Center at the University of Illinois Medical Center, was selected by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Section of Home, Ambulatory, and Chronic Care Practitioners to receive the 2010 Distinguished Service Award.

Maria Tanzi-Samaan, pharmd ’01, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, was presented the 2010 IMPRESA Award by the Women’s Division of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian-Americans. The IMPRESA Award honors women from the Chicago Italian-American community who have demonstrated outstanding achievement for the improvement of their communities.

Guido Pauli, associate professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, was elected to U.S. Pharmacopeia’s Expert Committee on Dietary Supplements for the 2010–15 term.

Daniel Touchette, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, was named a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.


[TheRockfordFiles

Cutting the Rockford ribbonNew COP Rockford campus officially opens its doorsOn August 12, the UIC College of Pharmacy celebrated the opening of its first regional campus in Rockford. Housed in a newly constructed addition to the existing UIC College of Medicine at Rockford building, the UIC College of Pharmacy at Rockford was launched to expand COP presence in the state and to address a pharmacist shortage that restricts easy access to prescription medication, especially in rural Illinois. The campus uses distance-education technology to provide Rockford students a curriculum identical to Chicago’s and offers a unique program designed to specifically prepare future pharmacists for practice within the rural areas that compose the majority of Illinois —the Rural Pharmacy Education Program (RPharm).

Rockford, by the numbers:

58,000Square footage of new addition housing COP

$26,500,000Cost of new construction

39Size of first P1 class

6 COP students enrolled in

RPharm

17Faculty and staff on campus

Doing the honors: Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, Rockford Chamber President Einar Forsman, Vice Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Rockford Dave Bartels, Dean of the College of Medicine at Rockford Martin Lipsky, University of Illinois President Michael Hogan, Dean of the College of Medicine Joe Flaherty (rear), Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares, Dean of the College of Pharmacy Jerry Bauman (rear), Congressman Don Manzullo, and Senator Dave Severson.

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Dean Jerry Bauman charms the audience with his remarks.

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Photography by Dan Pollack

The White Coats Arrive in Rockford

August 18 marked the first-ever College of Pharmacy White Coat Ceremony on the Rockford campus. Five alumni joined Dean Jerry Bauman, Vice Dean Dave Bartels, COP faculty, and an audience of proud friends and family in welcoming the Class of 2014 to the profession.

Alumni Coat Presenters:

Ron Koch, bs ’70, phd ’76Scott Meyers, bs ’76Jim O’Donnell, bs ’69

Allison Schriever, pharmd ’99Chris Schriever, pharmd ’99

Rockford’s newly coated Class of 2014 stand tall.

Proud onlookers gathered in the Robert J. Vickrey, MD, Auditorium for the proceedings.

Vice Dean Dave Bartels addresses the audience.

View a complete gallery of downloadable photos and order your prints online at www.flickr.com/uicpharmacy.

Future pharmacists and pharmaceutical industry researchers recite the Pledge of Professionalism.Volunteers “coat” their future fellow alumni.


Brilliant Futures

Dear alumni and friends,

As the days grow shorter and the temperatures drop, we all know fall is upon us, and that can only mean one thing—it’s reunion time at the UIC College of Pharmacy! Every year, I look forward to reunion time and the memories it brings with it. Reunion presents a chance to reconnect alumni with the College, reminisce about good times, and make new friends.

I’m very humbled and honored by the knowledge that the University of Illinois at Chicago has shaped much of my career. I am grateful to my predecessors, mentors, and peers for instilling in me the university’s unwavering standard of excellence in education, research, and professional leadership. Now it’s your turn to celebrate with fellow classmates and reconnect with faculty at our annual reunion, being held Saturday, November 6. This year, in an exciting new development, current students will join in the festivities as we’re merging our reunion with their annual winter formal. Additionally, the live band should offer an entirely new and upbeat atmosphere, which I am certain will make it a memorable evening.

Thanks to the generous contributions of our alumni and friends, the UIC COP Brilliant Futures campaign continues its forward momentum. As of the end of September, we have received $17.7 million in commitments, which represents approximately 77% of our goal. We’re on an upward progression for FY11, and it is exciting for me to see the wonderful momentum.

As we enter the final four years of the Brilliant Futures campaign, we will be traveling throughout the state to share with you our goals and aspirations for this great college. Joining us on our journey, our faculty and students will share with you, firsthand, their experiences of what it means to be part of the College today. We look forward to meeting with many of you and hearing your suggestions and ideas for building upon our colleges’ many unique strengths. We hope you will join our team to help the College remain among the best colleges of pharmacy in the country.

I encourage you to contact me to get involved, whether it is to ask a question, send a comment, or mentor a student.

With great thanks,

Christopher Shoemaker, med, mba, cfre

From the DirectorFrom the Director

Brilliant Futuresfundraising progressas of November 2010

$17.7 Million

COP’s Goal is $22.7 Million

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Brilliant Futures

John DeHaan, ’69 las, has tested theories his whole life. A self-defined science fair nerd, he was a “Mr. Wizard” fan as a kid who tried to split atoms in his parents’ basement. He’s since become a renowned criminalist and fire investigator whose proven theories have pivoted police cases and changed the courses of many lives. But it’s Joseph D. Nicol, DeHaan’s mentor and the namesake of his bequest to UIC, who changed the course of his.

“Joe was a forward thinker who led by example,” says DeHaan, who studied under Nicol while attending UIC. “He was blunt and cynical, but improved fire investigation by relying on testing to challenge a number of theories on which the practice was based.”

Nicol supported and guided DeHaan while he was a student UIC and through his early career. DeHaan has since authored the industry’s benchmark textbook on fire and arson investigation and started his own consulting company.

Thanks to DeHaan, the UIC College of Pharmacy will be able to establish the Joseph D. Nicol Professorship in Forensic Science. DeHaan hopes this will solidify a world-class educational program for aspiring criminalists.

“This professorship boosts our already-competitive program’s visibility in the profession, supports our recruitment of outstanding faculty and students, and helps us place alumni,” says Robert Gaensslen, head of the forensic science program in the College of Pharmacy. “We are thrilled by Dr. DeHaan’s bequest.” Criminalistics attracted not only the scientist in DeHaan, but also the part of him that wanted to have a positive impact on his world. His bequest to UIC is one example, among the many throughout his impressive career, of doing just that.

To learn more about bequests, visit www.giving.uic.edu/giftplanning.

Accomplished criminalist John DeHaan establishes COP’s Joseph D. Nicol Professorship in Forensic Science

Criminalist DeHaan credits late UIC professor Joseph D. Nicol for his success.

Criminalist DeHaan is renowned for expertisein fire investigation.

Teacher tribute

| UIC Pharmacist 12 | UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy

The Baron of BotanicalsWith more than a half-century of award-winning accomplishment, Norman Farnsworth is renowned for unmatched expertise in his field, a never-ending sense of curiosity, and a work hard, play hard ethic.

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s a student at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Norman Farnsworth kept hearing the same answer over and over to questions he posed in laboratory exercises about the pharmacological activity of herbal plants: No one knows.

A curious person by nature, Farnsworth wanted to know if plants could contain medicinal properties that could help people improve their health. He knew then what he wanted to pursue as a career—pharmacognosy, the study of medicines derived from natural sources.

Exploring nature’s pharmacy

A renowned botanical plant expert, Farnsworth, professor of pharmacognosy and director of the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical and Dietary Supplements Research, also known as the UIC Botanical Center, has traveled throughout the world to find plants that could fight illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and women’s health problems.

Since his arrival at the UIC College of Pharmacy in 1970, Farnsworth, who celebrated his 80th birthday in March, has been instrumental in securing millions of dollars in federal funds to finance his research. His latest project, subsidized through a $7.4 million grant from the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), is to study whether black cohosh, licorice, and hops can safely help alleviate menopausal symptoms.

With the rising popularity of botanicals, the safety of these products has been questioned by consumer advocates and government officials. In 2009, the

Government Accountability Office published a report stating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should take further actions to improve oversight and consumer understanding of dietary supplements.

The 2007 National Health Interview Survey showed nearly 18 percent of adults took a nonvitamin, nonmineral natural product, spending about $15 billion on the purchase of these products. Botanical products, including supplements, are among the most prevalent, and their use appears to be increasing.

“Botanical supplements aren’t a research-based industry,” Farnsworth says. “Millions of Americans take them, but we don’t know how they work or whether they work. For the first time, we’re doing human clinical trials. There’s so much potential for botanicals. Of the 300,000 plants on earth, only a handful has been studied.”

Most people know about hops because they are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor. UIC researchers are studying how hops may play a role in easing menopausal symptoms, including a reduction of hot flashes. A Phase I clinical trial is currently being conducted with a specialized hop product that has been developed and standardized at the UIC Botanical Center.

The UIC Botanical Center has also conducted studies on chaste berry, used by women for centuries to treat premenstrual symptoms; valerian, which has been found to improve sleeping disorders; and dong quai, a traditional Chinese medicine used as a tonic to improve women’s health.

Sharing the bounty of knowledge

In 1999, the ODS and NCCAM received funding to develop a botanical research initiative that resulted in the Botanical Research Centers Program. The program is now entering its third five-year cycle, and the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research is one of five U.S. centers to receive the grants this year. UIC’s center has always focused on women’s health.

“The UIC botanical center is the longest continuously performing center since the National Institutes of Health initiated the very competitive centers program in 1999,” says Marguerite Klein, director of the program. “This is testimony to the success and scientific productivity of the researchers and the leadership of Dr. Farnsworth.”

Added Paul M. Coates, director of the Office of Dietary Supplements, “Dr. Farnsworth has led and revived the field of pharmacognosy. The impact of his work extends beyond the walls of UIC and has shaped the direction of botanical research across the nation and around the world.”

Farnsworth has collected plants in Thailand, Indonesia, Peru, Brazil, Vietnam, and India, among other countries. Ask him about an herbal plant found anywhere in the world and most likely he will be able to tell you its common name, pharmacological activity, and in which journal more information can be located about the plant. If the encyclopedia in his mind can’t answer your question, the physical database he developed, NAPRALERT, can.

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In 1975, Farnsworth and his colleagues began searching every scientific and clinical journal pertinent to natural products in UIC’s vast five-branch Library of the Health Sciences. Additional sources were obtained through interlibrary loans and by reviewing tables of contents of select journals online. The earliest papers date back to the late 1800s, and new studies are reviewed as they become available.

The Natural Products Alert database, known as NAPRALERT (www.napralert.org), includes information on more than 200,000 published studies in the field of natural products, representing organisms, including marine organisms, from countries throughout the world. By accessing NAPRALERT via the Web, researchers, educators, and clinicians have found it easier to locate information on the pharmacological, ethnomedical, and/or phytochemical properties ofthese organisms.

“NAPRALERT is the world’s largest database on herbs and medicinal plant research, and it is a compilation of natural products used for health purposes and the development of new medications,” Farnsworth says. “Most, but not all, of the natural products included in the database are herbs and botanically derived ingredients and phytochemicals.”

No rest on his laurels

Throughout his distinguished career, Farnsworth has authored more than 500 original research papers and review articles in the field of natural products and has garnered numerous accolades for his contributions. In July 2005, Farnsworth received the American Society of Pharmacognosy Research Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the knowledge and advancement of medicinal plants or other natural products. The following year, in further recognition of his stature in the field, the same award was renamed the Norman R. Farnsworth Award for Excellence in Botanical Research.

In March 2006, Farnsworth also became the first recipient of the American Herbal Products Association Science Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to botanical science and to the industry.

Later this year, the National Cancer Institute will honor him and his fellow members of the PDQ Complementary and Alternative Medicine Editorial Board for their work in developing and maintaining physician-data-query cancer information summaries for health professionals and the public.

While research has played an important role in his career, it is his teaching of students that has kept him at the College for 40 years. He has been a mentor to hundreds of students, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in pharmacognosy. Through his generosity, the school was able to establish its first endowed professorship, named after him.

“I am extremely proud of having the opportunity to attract such outstanding scientists as Drs. Harry Fong, Doug Kinghorn, Geoff Cordell, Doel Soejarto, and more recently Steve Swanson, phd ’90; Joanna Burdette, phd ’03; Jimmy Orjala; Guido Pauli; C.T. Che; and Brian Murphy,” Farnsworth says. “No other academic institution in the world has been able to attract this many tenure-track pharmacognosists.

“UIC has been extremely fortunate in attracting many outstanding graduate and postdoctoral students, all of whom have been responsible for our successes. My success is attributable to their success.”

With the new NCCAM/ODS grant being a five-year project, Farnsworth has no intention of slowing down. And that’s fine with Dean Jerry Bauman.

“When Norm came to UIC from Pittsburgh, he brought several important things to the College,” Bauman says. “Most importantly, he brought a zeal to perform high-level research and scholarship, a culture that remains today within our faculty. He also brought a spirit of collaboration in research groups and a ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic.

“Through the years, Norm’s contributions brought recognition to our college; you could say he put us on the map in a number of ways. Today, he provides valuable mentorship to many and has taken on the role of the senior advisor. And he remains incredibly productive as a teacher and scientist. I know of very few 80-year-olds with a newly renewed large NIH grant.”


j

NormanFarnsworth, Revealed“Hidden” images on cover illustration paint a picture of the man

Shrunken head

It’s no secret to anyone who’s visited Norman Farnsowrth’s office in the College of Pharmacy that in it is housed a shrunken head. Or at least a replica of one. According to legend, Farnsworth purchased the “head” in the early ’70s from what former student James Graham, phd ’01, called the Shuar, an Amazonian tribe whose claim to fame in the nineteenth century was shrinking the actual heads of their slain enemies. While the artifact is reputed to be fake, “Nine times out of ten,” says research assistant Jordan Gunn, “Dr. Farnsworth will tell people who inquire that it was a COP grad student.” Since dealing in shrunken heads is considered a no-no in modern times, the Shuar, who have traditionally profited from the sale of these artifacts—genuine or otherwise—reportedly now create replicas from animal skins. Displayed behind Farnsworth’s relic is a series of photographs from a London museum depicting the process by which the Shuar shrank actual human heads.

Maine lobster

A New England native, Farnsworth is not shy about his love of shellfish. For a time, he was known to have eaten Maine lobster—the only true species of lobster, he claims—several times a week with lunch companions. The best in the Chicago area, according to Farnsworth, are served at an out-of-the way joint in Chinatown that does not list them on the menu, but would procure them when he was ready to dine. However, in the past few months, Farnsworth is reported to have completed an Alaskan king crab phase and, most recently, “has eaten Ipswich Steamers more often for lunch than crab or lobster combined,” says Gunn. Found only in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the clams are only regularly stocked by one purveyor in Chicago. According to Gunn, it is not unusual for Farnsworth to consume these for lunch daily, prepared in his office on a hot plate borrowed from a nearby lab. To accompany the bivalves, Farnsworth fills several coffee cups with “clam juice”—the water and the generous amount of salt used to steam them—and serves it as a ceremonial dipping sauce. Before declaring the feast complete, Farnsworth imbibes all the remaining clam juice. According to Gunn, “He says it’s the best part.”

Unlit cigar

To be more specific, Marsh Wheeling Deluxe Darks. Farnsworth once told a doctor that he used to smoke 10 a day, but “never inhaled.” When smoking indoors was outlawed on campus, Farnsworth began chewing on unlit cigars—sometimes five a day—leaving remnants in his wake around the College. “It’s a constant reminder of his presence,” says Gunn, “and usually a good lesson or joke—often both!”

A pioneer in its field, UIC’s Center for Pharmacoeconomics Research gives pharmacists the tools to build a better health care model by weighing cost against benefit.

By Daniel P. Smith


Drugs on the MarketDrugs on the Market


For years, pharmaceutical companies touted the four Ps in the traditional marketing mix — product, price, promotion, and placement.

Today, however, the industry considers a fifth P: pharmacoeconomics.

No longer a discipline confined to the fringes, pharmacoeconomics has infiltrated the ranks of health care providers, government agencies, academia, managed care companies, and front-line pharmacists, all of whom seek understanding about the discipline that is shifting and shaping today’s health care landscape.

“Pharmacoeconomics is an important issue from the societal perspective because we need to understand what we’re getting for our money in health care,” says Simon Pickard, associate professor of pharmacy practice. An Emerging Field

Throughout the 1980s, drug prices escalated at levels two to three times the general rate of consumer inflation, prompting concern and paving the way for pharmacoeconomics to enter into the U.S. health care dialog by the mid-1990s.

A marriage of economics and health-outcomes measurement, pharmacoeconomics weighs the costs against the benefits of medical therapies to assess their respective value. Yet, pharmacoeconomics extends beyond mere clinical results, pursuing the pharmaceutical therapies most likely to produce positive long-term outcomes—medically, ethically, and economically. Today, this subdiscipline of health economics works to ground health care services allocation in standard, scientific study.

Simply put, says Sanjay Gandhi, phd ’98, director of health economics and outcomes research at AstraZeneca, “Pharmacoeconomics is a discipline that helps in broader-level decision making to provide the best-quality treatment in the most cost-efficient manner.”

And it’s a discipline swelling in involvement and interest.To wit: Upon its founding in 1995, just as

pharmacoeconomics was working to cement itself as a viable discipline, the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) held approximately 400 members. Today, ISPOR claims over 8,200 members from 85 countries, nearly doubling its participation in the last five years.

“This is a field increasing like wild, and we need a lot of scientists here to demonstrate value in pharmacy,” says Sheldon Kong, a former UIC faculty member who now serves as executive director of Merck’s global outcomes research.

In the United States, pharmacoeconomics research holds value for a number of stakeholders—physicians, few of whom discuss cost effectiveness; insurance companies wanting to ensure a worthwhile investment; patients seeking health care in a cost-efficient manner; pharmaceutical companies eager to position their product in the marketplace; and the U.S. government, which is presently covering health care costs for nearly half of the nation’s population.

“Every day there is more and more movement for pharmacoeconomics, specifically with governments and health care systems that need to be effective and efficient in allocating resources,” says former UIC fellow and current Baxter health economics manager Juan Carlos Blackburn. Growing Pains

The ascent of pharmacoeconomics has not been without growing pains.

Concerns about pharmacoeconomics studies—namely their production, perspective, and consumption—have rankled many, particularly those worried that outcomes data could be tweaked to support a pharmaceutical company’s marketing message by ignoring key research components. Furthermore, the discipline has been plagued by conflicting studies and varied outcomes, as well as the complex issue of attributing quantitative evaluations to subjective outcomes, such as quality of life.

“Since much of the work [in the United States] was done within the pharmaceutical industry or sponsored by it, a layer of critical questioning remained,” says Kaiser Permanente research associate and former UIC fellow Melissa Butler, noting that public entities conduct many of Europe’s pharmacoeconomic studies. “There were a lot of assumptions being made about what would happen, and efficacy doesn’t always translate into real-world conditions.”

Over time, many insiders agree, pharmacoeconomics has matured in terms of its scientific methods and rigor, even if the fragmented U.S. health care system rejects open dialogue regarding costs.

Vinit Nair, ms ’04, director of drug safety and comparative effectiveness with Humana, noticed a turning point in late 2004 when the Vioxx debacle prompted a renewed interest in drug safety, an area that he believes runs parallel to pharmacoeconomics, and brought applicability and continuity to the forefront.

Today, the movement continues. “We’re seeing an increasing range of initiatives striving

to give across-the-board applications and research that comes out with one single answer,” says Nair.

As the rush for newer and more powerful pharmaceuticals intensifies and the dialogue on health care reform turns to harnessing escalating costs, pharmacoeconomics will only rise in validity, value, and importance.

“Anything we can do to better understand costs is simply gaining more and more importance,” says Glen Schumock, mba ’94, professor of pharmacy practice, adding that President Barack Obama’s current health care reform plan channels significant money into comparative effectiveness, a related field that will fuel pharmacoeconomics. Pharmacoeconomics and the Pharmacist

Though still maturing, the pharmacoeconomics discipline promises to have an intense impact on


the pharmacological profession, one that has consistently branched into other sciences from its chemistry-based roots.

As drug companies trumpet the benefits of their medications, consumers will undoubtedly seek a basic apples-to-apples price comparison between two drugs. However, the pharmacoeconomics-savvy pharmacist can explain how a given drug, perhaps more expensive for the patient today, will create long-term savings in relation to potential interventions and therapeutic procedures. With a more complete understanding of aspects of health economics that extend beyond drug therapy, pharmacists can provide a better perspective to patients and translate complex data into an accessible form.

“This will lead pharmacists to a more impactful role in patient care and raise their status as a clinician,” Gandhi says.

As pharmacoeconomics establishes deeper roots—its movement toward continuity and universality only enhancing pharmacy work and patient interaction—pharmacists can help providers, as well as patients, select the treatment option that is both clinically effective and cost conscious, thereby maximizing the available resources.

“The pharmacist will undoubtedly be asked about the cost of a drug, and ‘just because’ is not a reasonable answer,” Schumock says. “Pharmacists will need to respond to both the patient and physician with an informed viewpoint. It’s one more thing pharmacists can do that is more cognitive.” UIC: Playing a Leading Role

While the UIC College of Pharmacy remains at the forefront of a number of scientific disciplines, the College’s position on pharmacoeconomics is as prestigious as it is valuable to the growing field.

As stakeholders grappled with the best technology, costs, and effectiveness of health care treatments

throughout the 1990s, College of Pharmacy dean Jerry Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, envisioned the question of value emerging as the next stage of research.

“[Bauman] could see there would have to be an emphasis in this area,” Pickard says. “Sooner or later, we were going to have to understand what we were getting for our health care dollar.”

In 2002, UIC established the Center for Pharmacoeconomics Research, an interdisciplinary research unit designed to foster an understanding of the costs and outcomes of pharmaceutical products, services, and medication use policy. Alongside education and training programs, the center hosts 6–10 researchers conducting pharmacoeconomic studies, all with the goal of providing the important evidence necessary for policy makers, consumers, clinicians, and purchasers to make more informed, value-based decisions.

In less than a decade, the center has grown into one of the largest of its kind in the nation and remains one of only 13 in the United States—and the lone Midwest location—focused on comparative effectiveness. Under the direction of Schumock, the center’s researchers come from across the nation and around the world, many of whom are attracted to UIC’s credentials as well as Chicago’s pharmaceutical infrastructure, which includes companies such as Baxter and Abbott. Many, like Blackburn, Butler, and Nair, become leaders in outcomes research across the health care spectrum.

As the pharmacoeconomics field further entrenches itself in the health care landscape, UIC will continue to be a research leader, helping pharmacists broaden their clinical abilities and guiding industry response to modern-day health care realities.

“Pharmacoeconomics is what a rational society does,” Pickard says. “There’s an urgency here to change the trajectory, and the work we’re doing at UIC is helping to create that critical understanding.”

gThe UIC Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research, headed up by Director Glen Schumock (left) and Assistant Director Simon Pickard (right), has been designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness) center. The group is one of 11 centers nationwide that support research on patient-centered outcomes of health care with a focus on comparing clinical effectiveness.

An album of College of Pharmacy events


Gallery

COP’s annual Garden Walk in July welcomed 180 visitors for an open house at the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plants Garden, which lies adjacent to the College. In addition to faculty-guided tours of the garden itself, the event featured lectures by Steven Foster, recipient of the College’s Alan Lesniewicz Lectureship for 2010 and chairman of the board of trustees of the American Botanical Council. The Atkins Garden, established in 2002 through the generosity of Robert Atkins, md ’45, has served as an important research and teaching instrument at the College.

A walk in the gardenD

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Industry alumni and COP students confabIn September, 70 alumni and students gathered for the Pharmaceutical Industry Alumni and Student Social at the Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire. In addition to networking and socializing, alumni and students heard a brief presentation by Dean Bauman on the state of the College and a talk by Jeff Bishop, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, titled “Pharmacogenomics: Research, Education, and Beyond.”

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Jeff Bishop, pharmacy practice, discusses UIC pharmacogenomics research at the first-ever industry alumni and student social.

COP hosts first CE event in RockfordIn June, the Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine hosted a joint CE/CME event and open house at the new Rockford campus. Lecture topics included an update on Illinois pharmacy law, pandemic planning, and botanical supplements for aging.

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Mike Fager, VP of investments at Raymond James and Associates; Bob Graul, VP of ownership transfer-independent at McKesson; and Jimmy Neil, VP of pharmacy transition and strategy at Cardinal Health, lead a panel discussion on succession planning for independent pharmacies.

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Robert Harner, associate professor of medicine, lectures on the prevention of coronary disease.

Resident space renovatedPGY1 Mabel Rodriguez, a Florida native, enjoys working in the recently renovated office space for residents, located on the College’s lower level. Through COP’s one-year pharmacy practice residency program, clinical faculty offer guidance through the transition from student to practitioner and further prepare pharmacists interested in specialized training. B

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Residents benefit from space rehab.

APhA Outing Raises Nearly $5KGolf enthusiasts turned up for COP’s sixth annual APhA Golf Outing at the Odyssey Country Club in Tinley Park this past September to raise nearly $5,000 for UIC’s student chapter. Proceeds from the event will support meeting attendance as well as the organization’s patient-care initiatives, including the award-winning Operation Immunization.

Dean Bauman displays his talent on the greens at the 6th annual APhA Golf Outing.

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Photography by Barry Donald

White coats, bright future

On August 18 and 19, UIC’s next class of future pharmacists and pharmaceutical industry researchers were welcomed to the profession at the College of Pharmacy campuses in Rockford and Chicago. The White Coat ceremonies were held before an audience of proud friends and family. This year’s incoming students were selected from a pool of 1,371 applicants. The opening of the Rockford regional campus made room for 196 students, 36 more than the past 10 years’ median enrollment of 160.

About the Class of 2014• Enrollment in Chicago: 157• Enrollment in Rockford: 39• Women: 128• Men: 68• Age range: 20–49• Out-of-state students: 40

(up from four in 2009)• Foreign students: 4

Alumni Coat Presenters:

Dennis Bryan, bs ’74Bob Heyman, bs ’52

Norman Katz (former faculty)Patricia Katz, bs ’81

Ron Koch, bs ’70, phd ’76Jim O’Donnell, bs ’69Charlie Pfau, bs ’77Marc Rubin, bs ’76

Margaret Tomecki, pharmd ’96

The Class of 2014 shows off their new duds.

A proud family basks in the moment. Alumni presenters coat their future fellow graduates.

Congratulations are in order. P1s recite the Pledge of Professionalism.

View photos from Rockford White Coats on page 9. Find a complete gallery of downloadable photos and order your prints online at www.flickr.com/uicpharmacy.

Interested in coating a future pharmacist in Rockford or Chicago? Take part in this time-honored tradition next August. For more information on this opportunity or to find out about how else you can donate your time to the College, contact Deb Fox at (312) 996-0160 or [email protected].


1959 Ted Gladson, bs, of Naperville, is president emeritus of Gladson Interactive, which he established in 1971. The company provides digital product databases to the pharmacy industry and has designed more than 5,000 independent pharmacies. Gladson retired after selling the company in 2005.

1960 Michael Ellman, bs, md ’64, of Wilmette, is a retired professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. In his spare time, Ellman enjoys taking classes and reminisces fondly on his days at COP. “My pharmacy degree kept me in good stead during the rest of my career in medicine,” says Ellman. He resides with his wife, Roberta.

1960 Eugene Frank, bs, ms ’71, phd ’72 las, of Highland Park, is senior vice president of sales and marketing with Raani Corporation, a cosmetics contract manufacturing/private-label company located in Bedford Park. Frank, who considers former COP professor Fred Siegel, phd ’55, a mentor, originally planned to pursue a career in research and development in pharmaceuticals. He then gained entrée to the cosmetics industry in 1972 through a colleague and has enjoyed working in the field ever since. “As long as you’re young,” Frank advises fellow alumni, “don’t pigeonhole yourself. There are lots of opportunities out there for people in pharmacy.” 1965 Bob Piepho, bs, of Raymore, Missouri, is a professor of pharmacology in the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), having just recently retired as dean of the School of Pharmacy. He is currently a member of the board of regents and past president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP). Piepho is the first nonphysician selected to serve on the ACCP. He is also a reviewer for the Journal

of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy and Clinical Drug Investigation. Piepho’s professional honors include outstanding teaching awards from the University of Nebraska College of Pharmacy, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the UMKC School of Pharmacy. He has also been the recipient of the ACCP Nathaniel T. Kwit Memorial Distinguished Service Award. This year, Piepho is the recipient of the Bowl of Hygeia Award from the Missouri Pharmacy Association. Established in 1958, Bowl of Hygeia Award recognizes pharmacists who possess outstanding records of civic leadership and encourages pharmacists to take active roles in community affairs. It is considered the profession’s most prestigious award.

1970 John Landa, bs, of Wheaton, recently retired from his position as a pharmacist at Dominick’s. He resides with his wife, Linda.

1975 Kerry Buckingham, bs, of Sterling, is a staff pharmacist at CGH Medical Center. He enjoys the variety of duties that his position affords, as well as interacting with fellow health care providers at the hospital. Kerry and his wife, Kathleen, have four children, two presently in college and two having graduated.

1975 Stephan Munson, bs, of Sterling, opened The Medicine Shoppe ten years ago after years of service in both hospital and multispecialty group settings. He and his wife, Melody (Hamann), bs ’80, who worked as a clinical pharmacist for 30 years, have four children.

1977 Cindy Flores, bs, of Chicago, closed her retail shop, Cindy’s Pharmacy, in 2008.

Despite this, Flores, who serves on the COP Alumni Board, has managed to keep herself busy. She and her husband, Jose, own an assisted living business in southwestern Wisconsin, and she is active in the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Chicago and the Federation of Filipino-American Chambers of Commerce. In the spring, she was featured in a cover story in the Februrary 2010 edition of Via Times, a local Filipino-American newspaper.

1977 Steven Zielinski, bs, of Belvidere, works as central regional director for SUNRx. In this position, he assists safety-net organizations with maximizing the potential of the 340B federal drug discount program for savings and revenue generation.

1978 Judy (Sparesus) Lubinski, bs, bs ’75 las, of Clarendon Hills, manages the Adventist GlenOaks Hospital Outpatient Pharmacy in Glendale Heights. She and her husband and Steve, bs, have two children who hold degrees in geology and physics, and three grandchildren.

1984 Tami (Klemmer) Marron, bs, of Chicago, returned to COP this fall to audit the principles of drug action and therapeutics I class. In 2008, Marron left her position as pharmacy operations manager at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center to help her two daughters transition to high school. In September, she took on a part-time position at a small pharmacy in Chicago Heights. Marron, who also holds an MBA from DePaul University, returned to COP to strengthen her clinical skills while considering pursuit of a doctorate degree. “I’m having a ball,” says Marron of her return to COP. “It’s intellectually stimulating and eye-opening to see how many interesting things are going on here.”

Class Notes

100 E. LeFevre Road Sterling, IL (815) 625-0400

A Picture of Health

Kerry Buckingham,CGH Pharmacist with his wife

and newborn in 1986.

CGH M edic al Center1 9 0 9 2 0 0 9Kerry and Kathleen Buckingham and then-newborn daughter, Traci, in 1986

Eugene Frank

Tammi Marron

1992 Heidi (Connell) Runge, pharmd, of Davenport, Iowa, is a pharmacist at District Drugs and Compounding. Previously, she worked as a clinical pharmacist as well as a community pharmacist. Runge finds her current position to be “the most energizing portion of her career thus far.” Runge and her husband, Hank, bs ’90 cba, both former UIC student-athletes, are proud parents of three children.

1994 Dana R. (Pencyla) Udovich, pharmd, of Northbrook, and her husband, Tom, adopted their son, Matthew, in August 2009. She is currently his full-time caregiver and plans to reenter the pharmacy field in the future. Most recently, she was employed with CVS Caremark as a clinical pharmacist in clinical services.

2005 Sally (Connor) Bink, of Herrin, is employed with the Marion VA Medical Center. She resides with her husband, Jeffrey.

2006 Scott Siegert, pharmd, of Thousand Oaks, California, works as a medical science liaison for Avanir Pharmaceuticals. He and his wife, Sherry, pharmd ’09, have one child, Cameron, and are expecting another addition to the family in November.

2007 Patrick Lester, pharmd, bs ’03 uiuc, of DeWitt, Iowa, is employed at Scott Drugs. He and his wife, Jess, have a son, Jonas, born in 2007.

2008 Taichi Inui, phd, of Chicago, has been employed at the Wrigley Global Innovation Center (GIC) since graduating from UIC. As a technology scientist, he is responsible for upstream science focused on mastication and the benefits that chewing gum has on oral and systemic health. The team at the GIC works to develop new products, sustainable ingredients, and new formulations and processes for this $5 billion industry.


Visit www.uic.edu/pharmacy/alumni/alumni_update to send in your news for Class Notes!

Matthew J. Udovich

Scott, Cameron, and Sherry Siegert

Jonas Lester

Class Notes

Heidi (Connell) Runge, PHARMD

Corporate Connections

On August 3, Dean Jerry Bauman visited the Dominick’s corporate office in Oak Brook to provide a COP update to more than 60 pharmacists, many of whom are alumni, such as our corporate host, Stephen Scalzo ‘75. Among other topics, Dean Bauman spoke about the recent expansion to Rockford, accolades in college ranking and research funding, and the College's nearly 40-year-old residency program, with which Dominick’s participates. In addition, Dean Bauman discussed his concerns about reduced state funding for higher education as well as the recent increase in colleges of pharmacy during what could become a saturated job market for new graduates.

Dean Bauman is pleased to speak with groups of alumni and organizations. If interested in hosting the dean for your group of alumni and friends of the College, please contact Ben Stickan at (312) 636-7491 or [email protected].

Revealing Food’s Secrets


Alumni Spotlight

John Plachetka, bs ’76, is living the dream.

Most people wouldn’t be surprised to hear those words coming

from the president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of a

successful pharmaceutical company. But the dream to which Plachetka

refers isn’t focused on prestige, profit, or power.

“I’m living the dream of most pharmacists who would like to make

a medicine that improves patients’ lives,” he says. “We come up with

ideas that make people’s lives better, and I’m very fortunate that these

ideas are mine.”

Plachetka, who founded POZEN in 1996, has a history of helping

to develop groundbreaking drugs that have become household words—

Zantac® and Imitrex® are just two with which he was involved during his

nine years at Glaxo, Inc., in the ’80s. It was during a subsequent stint as

head of development at Texas Biotechnology that Plachetka hatched the

concept behind POZEN.

“The idea was to create a more productive way to develop

improved therapeutics for patients,” he says. “I did so by improving on

existing molecules by adding a second active ingredient.

“The goal is to either improve the efficacy of an agent or to reduce

its toxicity—or both.”

A product of that approach, POZEN’s first FDA-approved drug,

Treximet®, which contains Imitrex®, offered a 60 percent improvement

in the efficacy its predecessor.

“It was as dramatic a leap forward as Imitrex® was over previous

migraine standards,” says Plachetka.

POZEN’s business model, which was relatively novel at its inception

in the ’90s, is to create an idea, secure the intellectual property, spend

the company’s own resources developing the drug and gaining approval,

then turn it over to someone else to handle marketing and sales.

And it’s worked. In the past three years, POZEN, which went

public in 2000, has produced no less than two FDA-approved drugs.

Treximet®, marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, was followed by VIMOVO™,

an arthritis remedy licensed to AstraZeneca.

Despite his company’s success, Plachetka insists that he owes his

accomplishments to a foundation of knowledge laid during his years at

UIC, citing research opportunities presented to him by then-dean August

Lemberger and former head and pharmacy practice professor Richard

Hutchinson.

“The College of Pharmacy embraced the concept of clinical

pharmacy and offered an outstanding curriculum,” says Plachetka. “You

are a product of your environment, and I’ve been blessed to be around

some very talented people who gave me the opportunity to attempt what

I eventually got a chance to do.”

—Jessica A. Canlas

Engineering Innovation

John Plachetka develops unique drug development approach into formula for success

Pharmacognosy alumni team up for classified research at Kraft

Although Nam-Cheol Kim, phd ’99 (left), and Will

Jones, phd ’06 (right), are sometimes research partners,

they work more as a tag team than side by side. Both are

senior scientists for research, development, and quality at

Kraft Foods and both focus on health and wellness. But that

is where the similarities in their jobs end. Kim spends most of

his time in a laboratory, while Jones often serves as a liaison

between the lab and product development.

“I work in a group that researches natural products,

including the potential of natural compounds with color,

flavor, or other properties that might be of interest for a

specific application,” Jones says. In some cases, although

a potential ingredient may show promise for one property,

such as color, he explains, that may be accompanied by

an unwanted asset, like an unpleasant flavor. Such issues

can impact whether or not a potential ingredient will work

in a product.

In the lab, Kim supports Jones’s work by using nuclear

magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to determine the

exact contents of a product or ingredient. “NMR is the

ultimate tool in providing molecular-structure information in

an unambiguous way,” Kim says, allowing researchers to

determine a food’s exact contents.

Jones describes Kim’s work as “the closest thing

to what you see on the TV show CSI.” While on TV, the

results are produced instantaneously, in real life, the process

requires much focus and experience, Jones says.

Unfortunately, Jones and Kim are not at liberty to

provide examples of ingredients or Kraft products on which

they have worked, citing the high level of secrecy involved in

a research environment as competitive as the food industry.

They don’t even share that information with their wives. “I

think it is just something that goes along with working in this

industry,” Jones says.

—Phil Rockrohr

John Plachetka is CEO of POZEN

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Alumni

1935 Aaron Goldin, phc, of Long Grove, May 4. Goldin practiced pharmacy through 1996 and was active in the Illinois Pharmacists Association.

1940 Edward J. Kluza, bs, of Lake Forest, June 13. A Chicago native, Kluza owned and operated Kluza Pharmacy on the city’s northwest side for 35 years. He served on the board of directors of Parkway Bank for 29 years and was a member of American Legion Post #264.

1947 Aaron Ezra Kaplan, bs, of Vernon Hills, June 22. He was employed as pharmacy director at the Mile Square Health Center before retiring.

1948 Betty Jane (Knauss) Susina, bs, of Birmingham, Alabama, August 6. A Chicago native, Susina attended Steinmetz High School. She and her husband, Stan, bs, ms ’51, phd ’55, were in the same graduating class at UIC. The couple married in 1948 and had three children. Stan was employed as a professor in the UIC College of Pharmacy before he joined the Samford University School of Pharmacy, where Betty became an advisor for the Pharmacy Wives’ Club and the Lambda Kappa Sigman pharmacy sorority. In Birmingham, Betty’s career included working as a pharmacist at the Children’s Hospital and in the Pizitz department store and as a relief pharmacist for area pharmacies and the Jefferson County Health Clinics. In 2002, Betty and Stan received the Pharmacy Distinguished Service Award from the McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford. The Susinas were members of the Lutheran Church of Vestavia Hills, where Betty founded the Birmingham Lutheran Braille Center, was a church elder, and was involved with the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. Betty belonged to the Birmingham Audubon Society and was a leader with Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the Parent-Teacher Association. She volunteered at Birmingham’s Firehouse Shelter and was an active member of Birmingham’s Friendship Force. In 1971, Betty was honored by the Hoover Riverchase Rotary Club with its Service Above Self Award. The Susinas were members of the Hoover Country Club, where Betty played tennis competitively. She was captain of a U.S. Tennis Association Senior Women’s Tennis Team for 10 years. An avid traveler, Betty enjoyed numerous trips through the United States and Europe, South American, Australia, Africa, and India. With a strong

interest in arts and crafts, she also pursued hobbies in sewing, enamel jewelry, stained glass, and photography.

1949 Verne K. Smallwood, bs, of Chicago, March 21.

1950 Norman F. Cipolle, bs, of Joliet, April 16. Cipolle was a World War II Army Air Corps veteran who served in the Philippines. He was coowner of Crest Pharmacy and served as adjunct faculty at Joliet Junior College. Active in his community, Cipolle also belonged to the Will County Pharmaceutical Association, of which he was a past president, and the Will County Aesculapian Association. He also volunteered in the Will County drug prevention program and was a member of the Joliet Evening Lions Club, for which he hosted the Wednesday night ping pong club. An avid fisherman, Cipolle also enjoyed Dixieland jazz, country music, and sports.

1953 Steve Edward Mayer, ms, phd ’55, of Nashville, Tennessee, June 29. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Mayer and his mother emigrated to Holland and then to the United States during World War II. At age 16, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, completing two bachelor’s degrees with honors. After UIC, Mayer completed postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health and Washington University before joining the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University. In 1969, he left Emory to accept a position as professor of medicine and director of the Division of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In 1985, Mayer relocated to Nashville and became a visiting professor in pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine until retiring in 1995 as professor emeritus at UCSD. Recognized for his research on fat and cardiac muscle metabolism, Mayer garnered many accolades during his career and served as president of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He was fond of chamber music and photography.

1953 Donald Trepanier, bs, of Carmel, Indiana, May 9. Born in Chicago, Trepanier completed a Doctor of Philosophy in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Michigan and went on to postdoctorate study at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He and Ruth Ann Acker were married in 1957. Trepanier was employed with Dow Chemical as a pharmaceutical research chemist before retiring in 1985. He was a member of Carmel Lutheran Church.

1954 Michael Terence Balzer, bs, of Elkton, Florida, June 20. A Chicago native, Blazer had resided in St. Augustine, Florida, since 1983. He worked as a pharmacist for Winn-Dixie and Eckerd Drug Store and, most recently, for Island Pharmacy. Balzer was a member of Anastasia Baptist Church.

1962 Harry Goodman, bs, of Chicago, July 21. Goodman was a member of the U.S. Army band at Fort Lee, Virginia. He was president of movie supply/audiovisual sales at Apache Films and 21st Century Electronics. Goodman also served as president of the Morton Grove Community Theater.

1963 Allen Kagan, bs, of Mundelein, December 2.

1969 Dean Metcalfe, bs, of Oswego, July 14. Born in Chicago, Metcalfe married Susan Geye in 1973. After UIC, he began his career as a pharmacist at Colonial Drugs. Metcalfe also owned and operated Hunts End Pharmacy. Most recently, he was employed as a pharmacy manager with Walgreens.

1969 Kenneth J. Petruci, bs, of Hauppauge, New York, August 14.

1970 Louis Ligos, Jr., bs, of Joliet, June 6. A lifetime resident of Joliet, Ligos graduated from Joliet Catholic Academy in 1964 and remained an active supporter of its athletics program, particularly football and baseball. He worked as a pharmacist at Tinley Park Mental Health Center.

1975 Douglas Reynolds, bs, of Joliet, December 26. Reynolds was employed as the pharmacy director at Shriners Hospital for Children before he retired. He was a member of King Oscar Lodge #855.

1984 Joann (Fox) Feugen, bs, pharmd ’92, of Champaign, August 27. During her career, Feugen was employed as director of pharmacy at South Shore Hospital and Taylorville Hospital and also worked part-time at Provena, Apria/Coram, and Walgreens. A native of Joliet, she was active in Mothers of Preschoolers at St. John’s Lutheran.

Faculty

Roy Bible, ms ’49 uiuc, phd ’52 uiuc, of Rochester, Minnesota, April 19. After serving serving in the Army in World War II, Bible attended the University of Maine and Virginia Military Institute before earning a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. After earning degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bible began a 50-year career at G. D. Searle, starting as a bench medicinal chemist and then developing an interest in the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry in chemical structure elucidation. He wrote two books on the interpretation of NMR spectra, shared 26 patients, and coauthored 38 peer-reviewed papers. Bible remained with Searle as it became part of Monsanto, Pharmacia, and Pfizer. In 2003, Bible retired from Pfizer as a senior research fellow and began his own consulting firm. He was an emeritus member of the American Chemical Society, which he joined in 1952. Bible was honored with the group’s Distinguished Service Award from its Chicago section for which he served as ACS councilor for more than 40 years. He was also a recipient of the Chicago Technical Societies’ Merit Award and the Honor Scroll from the Illinois Institute of Chemists. An adjunct professor at UIC, Bible was the first chairman of the Virginia Tech chemistry department advisory council and served as past president of the Chicago Chemists’ Club. His personal interests included hiking, lapidary work, silversmithing, photography, and painting.


Obituaries

Aaron Goldin (right) with wife, Helen, and son, Richard, bs ’68

Over the Counter

The affectionately termed “Pharmacy Cookbook” housed at the UIC Library of the Health Sciences (LHS), is believed to have been owned by

Edward Stuchlik, a 1904 graduate of the College of Pharmacy. An entry on Stuchlik in the 1921 Alumni Record, as well as his diploma from the College, may also be found at LHS. This collection of recipes includes practical remedies, such as peppermint salve, silver nitrate skin compresses, and ear drops, as well as beauty formulations, like cold cream and a concoction to “protect painted nails.”

Images courtesy of UIC University Library


Cookbook]

25UIC Pharmacist | Fall 2010 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy |See if your employer sponsors a gift-matching program and make your contribution go even further! Learn more by visiting www.uif.uillinois.edu/matching.

Support the

Siegel Scholarship

If you’re a College of Pharmacy alumnus, chances are you’ve heard of Dr. Siegel.A two-time graduate of the College, Dr. Siegel served as a faculty member for nearly 35 years. During his tenure, he was voted Teacher of the Year 15 times and was the recipient of nine Golden Apple Awards in recognition of excellence in instruction.

Since then, Dr. Siegel has come to represent the highest caliber of pharmacy education and is one of the most beloved professors in the College’s history. Recognized as a national expert on bringing a concept to final dosage form, Dr. Siegel aided numerous industries as a product development consultant and still actively consults at 80 years of age. For these and countless other accomplishments, the College honored Dr. Siegel with its Legacy Award in 2009.

Today, the College hopes to ensure Dr. Siegel’s lasting legacy with a $25,000 endowed scholarship in his name.

But we need your help.

“Dr. Siegel is a most beloved professor of more than 4,000 students in his career at the UIC College of Pharmacy. It is with sincere gratitude that we honor our mentor, colleague, and, most of all, close friend of more than 40 years. We hope to demonstrate this appreciation through our support of a scholarship in his name to carry on his legacy for future students at the UIC College of Pharmacy.” —Bruce, bs ’74, and Linda Grider, bs ’75

“Dr. Siegel has been my advisor, my boss, my formulations consultant, my mentor, and my close friend for more than 35 years. Most of my accomplishments in pharmacy can be directly linked back to the education and guidance that Fred provided. It is an honor to contribute to this scholarship and forever link Fred’s name to a program that will continue to support our future pharmacists.”—Ed Meyer, bs ’74

Please consider a $250 gift to the Frederick P. Siegel Scholarship. Your gift, combined with those of other alumni, will honor a master educator who impacted the lives of more than three decades of COP graduates.

Give your gift today. Visit www.pharmagiving.uic.edu.

For the full calendar of events, visit the College of Pharmacy Office of

Advancement and Alumni Affairs online at www.uic.edu/pharmacy. Questions?

Contact Deb Fox at (312) 996-0160 or [email protected].

UIC College of Pharmacy (MC 874)833 South Wood StreetChicago, Illinois 60612

IN THELOOP

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Upcoming College of Pharmacy Events

November 16AAPS ANNUAL MEETINGDean’s Reception: 5:30–7:30 p.m.Cambridge RoomHilton New Orleans Riverside2 Poydras Street New Orleans, La.

December 5–9ASHP MIDYEAR MEETINGDean’s Reception: Dec. 5, 6:00–8:00 p.m.Anabella Hotel1030 West Katella AvenueAnaheim, Calif.

Illinois Reception: Dec. 7, 5:30–7 p.m.Pacific Ballroom BHilton Anaheim777 Convention WayAnaheim, Calif.

January 12, 2011ARIZONA ALUMNI DINNER5:30–7:30 p.m.The Capital Grille2502 East Camelback RoadPhoeniz, Ariz.

February 24–25, 2011COLLEGE OF PHARMACY RESEARCH DAYSUIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetChicago, Ill.Alumni judges wanted! For details, please contact Ben Stickan at (312) 996-2366 or [email protected].

Save the Date

February 21–26, 2011AAFS ANNUAL MEETINGForensics Alumni ReceptionHyatt Regency Chicago151 East Wacker DriveChicago, Ill.Details to be announced.

March 25–28, 2011APhA ANNUAL MEETINGSeattle, Wash.UIC Pharmacy Ice Cream SocialDetails to be announced.

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