AAPS reviews its progress in 2017.
In 2017, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) put special focus on science, careers, and community in supporting the pharmaceutical science community. I’d like to report on the progress we made in these three areas.
SCIENCE. With the goals of advancing scientific discovery, exchange, and learning, AAPS is proud of its accomplishments in publishing, online learning, and annual events.
The AAPS journals have demonstrated their significance in the field, and when AAPS promotes them via social media, they are very popular. In addition to an increase in submissions, in 2017, The AAPS Journal published four open access white papers:
- A View on the Importance of “Multi-Attribute Method” for Measuring Purity of Biopharmaceuticals and Improving Overall Control Strategy
- Recommendations for Selection and Characterization of Protein Biomarker Assay Calibrator Material
- Drug Target Interference in Immunogenicity Assays: Recommendations and Mitigation Strategies
- Recommendations for the Assessment and Management of Pre-existing Drug-Reactive Antibodies During Biotherapeutic Development
AAPS PharmSciTech also had an increase in submissions, and its impact factor grew from 1.954 to 2.451. And our newest journal, AAPS Open, had the most downloads per paper of all the AAPS journals. Quite an accomplishment for a journal we launched in 2015. For Pharmaceutical Research, 86 percent of articles receive citations, and Pharm Res articles were mentioned on social media 1,633 times.
In elearning, AAPS sections and focus groups have put together an impressive lineup of webinars. In 2017, AAPS facilitated 35 webinars, covering scientific topics from bioequivalence and immunogenicity to modeling and simulation and FDA guidance. The three most popular webinars were Validation of Bioanalytical Methods in Support of Biosimilar Drug Development, Selection of Regulatory Starting Materials–New Guidelines and Recent Trends, and Surfactants: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.
AAPS’ annual events are where we pull out all the stops to offer top-notch science. At our most recent 2017 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition, nearly 6,300 attendees took advantage of the more than 2,000 poster presentations and 100 scientific sessions, including five hot topic presentations on the latest research like CAR-T therapies. In response to previous attendee comments, we scheduled posters into eight topical poster forums, where attendees could chat with poster presenters and view posters in areas relevant to them. Nearly 400 exhibiting partner companies offered a full array of solutions for pharmaceutical scientists including 20-minute “chalk talks,” demonstrations, case studies, and speaker panels.
This year’s AAPS PharmSci 360 will offer a brand new event designed to increase collaboration between chemical and biologics-focused scientists, provide conference attendees a meaningful and engaging learning experience, focus on new research, provide training on new hot topics, and exploit the great strength of the AAPS community: cross-discipline learning experiences. Every part of the new event is designed to build up scientific knowledge and collaboration. There will be sessions grouped into tracks and split into chemical and biological areas. We’ll publish more details as we approach the date, November 4–7, 2018.
CAREERS. AAPS has been working to enhance member services in career development. In response to member input, we have focused on topics of greatest interest to our members.
At the 2017 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition, we offered 45 educational sessions spanning more than 40 hours. We also hosted a LinkedIn Bar, where attendees received a free critique of their LinkedIn profile and learned how to use it to update their AAPS Communities profile. Attendees also availed themselves of our popular résumé review service and the recruiters on-site from pharmaceutical companies. See this month's Professional Development article for a report on the session, Soft Skills in a World of Hard Data, at the meeting. Other presenters covered interviewing skills for mid-career job changes, creating a résumé that stands out in a crowd, and a how-to guide for future leaders in a global life sciences company.
For 2018, we expect to have expanded career development programming at the AAPS PharmSci 360. We’ll be writing more about what’s to come in future issues of AAPS Newsmagazine.
This issue also includes our annual salary survey, which helps members determine where they stand compared to their peers. Look under Career Development in the navigation bar for an overview of the survey results.
COMMUNITY. AAPS members are already contributing to our newly launched AAPS Communities discussion board . In this members-only area, you can share ideas, pose questions, and find resources for your most pressing interests. Some of the most popular science discussions concern emerging technologies, controls used in ADA methods, and small scale spray dryers. Other popular topics include networking tips, job searching on social media, and women in pharma. Community participants are sharing resources in the communities’ library on topics as varied as ADA validation reporting harmonization, DMPK strategies for ADCs containing antibody, and ISR for biomarker analysis. I’m impressed with the generosity of our members to share their expertise. Already, we have 67 discussion threads and almost 500 library downloads. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to use the AAPS Communities to get your questions answered and share your knowledge.
My deepest thanks go to all the AAPS members who have contributed to AAPS this past year through publishing their research in AAPS journals, organizing and presenting webinars, serving on the annual meeting programming committee, screening abstracts, presenting sessions at the annual meeting, sharing their expertise in the AAPS Communities, and so much more. Without volunteers, the progress we have made in 2017 would not have been possible. If you are looking for a way to get involved with AAPS, or to increase your involvement, visit the AAPS volunteer opportunities webpage.