The Foundation, at the 18th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology in Kyoto

The Esteve Foundation was present once again at the most important international meeting in the field of pharmacology, the World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, which this year held its 18th edition from 1 to 6 to July in Kyoto. The Esteve Foundation attended the congress to present three projects, among which is its collaboration with the Department of Experimental Sciences and Health of Universitat Pompeu Fabra on a project that introduces historical facts of the first antimicrobials to improve the teaching of pharmacology.

After analysing 50 review articles, 82 books and more than 3,000 articles published in The New York Times, The Times and La Vanguardia between 1908 and 1979, the investigation identified 26 historical facts and anecdotes related to arsephenamine, sulfamide and streptomycin that could prove very useful in the teaching of pharmacology. This includes the history of 606, the initial name of arsephenamine, the controversy surrounding the Prontosil patent and the sexual discrimination that Elizabeth Bugie suffered after the discovery of streptomycin.Other historical facts raised by this study address such issues as new management approaches, drug toxicity, new pharmaceutical recommendations, patents, business interests and the use of medicine during war.

The Esteve Foundation also presented in Kyoto one of its most ambitious projects, which it is developing in conjunction with the Department of Communications of Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The study will be led by the scientific journalist Gonzalo Casino and will seek to analyse the amount and quality of the information about drugs in the Spanish press. The appearance of news about drugs in 22 Spanish media organisations is analysed over one decade, from 2007 to 2016, including four news agencies, fifteen general interest newspapers, two economic publications and one directed at medical professionals.

Among the results of this extensive study, which will soon be made known, the initial conclusions were presented at the Kyoto gathering. They included, for example, the scarcity of information about drugs in the Spanish press compared to other biomedical and scientific news.

Lastly, the Foundation also presented at the World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology the protocol for assessing the impact of the course How to write a scientific article, a project that will analyse if students who take the course are able to improve their scientific writing. For this, participant satisfaction surveys will be conducted and questionnaires regarding knowledge and attitudes about scientific writing before and after the course will be administered. Since 2003, more than 1,300 students have participated in the 44 editions of the training course that Esteve Fernández, Ana María García and Carmen Vives have offered in Spain and Latin America.