At the recent American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, USA, Emeritus Professor Isadore Kanfer, PhD of the Rhodes University Pharmacy Department was made a Fellow of the AAPS. He was also elected as Chairman of the Bioequivalence focus group.
An individual is granted the honour of being named AAPS Fellow after making sustained and remarkable scholarly and research contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences. These contributions can include original articles, scientific presentations at international meetings and patents.
The citation reads as follows, “As a distinguished contributor and acknowledged leader in the advancement of the pharmaceutical sciences and for exceptional contributions in your field of pharmaceutical research, you have been designated a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.”
The AAPS is a professional scientific society which has approximately 12 000 members worldwide. Founded in 1986, its members work in academia, industry, government and research institutes, with the AAPS providing a dynamic forum through which its members exchange knowledge. According to the AAPS website, it offers “timely scientific programmes, on-going education, resources and opportunities for networking and professional development.
Kanfer’s main research interests are focused on the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines, in particular bioavailability and bioequivalence of pharmaceutical dosage forms. He has been working on the development of methods for the bioequivalence assessment of topical dermatological dosage forms where the drug is not intended to be absorbed into the systemic circulation.
His work in other areas of research includes the regulation of complementary and traditional medicines, the development and validation of assays for use in control and quality assurance and bioassays for the quantitative determination of drugs in biological fluids, formulation and dissolution, biopharmaceutics, and pharmacokinetics as well as interactions between Complementary/African Traditional Medicines and anti-retroviral agents (ARVs).
Prof Kanfer has contributed to over 200 research publications and conference presentations, and is co-editor of four books in the series Generic Drug Product Development. He served as Dean and Head of Pharmacy at Rhodes from 1999-2007, was also the founder of the Biopharmaceutics Research Institute at Rhodes and has dedicated much of his life to Rhodes. He completed both his Bachelor of Science (Honours) and his Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) (with distinction) at Rhodes followed by the PhD degree in 1972.
Prof Kanfer is an Honorary Life Member of the SA Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and has served as its President. He is a member of both the International Pharmaceutical Federation and the American Pharmaceutical Association and is also a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa. His appointment as a 2010 Fellow of the AAPS is yet a further indication of his international standing as a researcher in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences.