Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 11/1/2018 12:00:00 AM
Bruno X. Boutouyrie‐Dumont, MD, Director, Tm Autoimmunity, Novartis Pharma, Sierentz, France
In France and Switzerland, the clinical pharmacology community is somewhat split between academia and industry. In these countries, the term “clinical pharmacology” is now used more for describing clinical pharmacokinetics than clinical pharmacodynamics. Pharmacometrics is also often considered separate as well. Translational medicine is typically used to describe early clinical drug development activities. There are a few societies or associations to create and support communities of practice, but a recent (January 2016) entry‐into‐human study tragic adverse event in France revived the critical need for a central European organization capable to compare all available data on specific new drug targets at the time of the first‐in‐human clinical study. Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont observes that “in general, unfortunately, the recent years have been similar to the other topics or businesses in Europe, less European and more nationalistic tendencies, with the very sad decision of the United Kingdom (Brexit). There seems to be a possible restart of the European building story with the emergence of a strong common will between France and Germany.”
Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont trained as a general medicine practitioner, but at the end of his medical studies, he spent several years in biochemistry research. This gave him the opportunity to join the pharmaceutical industry in France at a time when there was not yet a role of “clinical pharmacologist.” The small company that he joined wanted to develop beta‐interferon in viral diseases linked to herpes viruses. His next job was with another small company that was working on early development for a topical corticosteroid. This gave him the opportunity to work closely with the British clinical pharmacology community and with what would be called translational medicine today, specifically in the field of asthma. He had the honor of collaborating with Peter Barnes, and he attended Dr. Barnes's excellent training courses in Brompton Hospital in London.
Rapidly, Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont realized there was a need for early development physicians. He was offered a place at the Rhône‐Poulenc Rorer and participated in the creation of the first clinical pharmacology department in the company. It was the start of an exciting period with the actual implementation of the preliminary concept of translational medicine in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1994, he moved to Pennsylvania to create the expanded department in Collegeville, near Philadelphia. While there, he had the opportunity to meet and work with the Thomas Jefferson University Clinical Pharmacology department, led by Thorir Bjornsson, MD, and by Scott Waldman, MD, PhD. Dr. Waldman sponsored Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont to join ASCPT in 1997. He views these years of collaboration with Dr. Waldman and his team as his “greatest experience and training in clinical pharmacology.” Later, he moved back to France and continued his passion for clinical pharmacology/translational medicine by moving to Switzerland with Roche and later Novartis.
Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont's current company has five guiding principles; the first of these is “Put Patients First.” He and his team in the translational medicine department work to discover new targets and develop as fast as and as early as possible new candidate drugs. That means focusing on unmet medical needs, and there are several of them in all therapeutic areas. One founding idea of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research was to go as soon as possible into “proof‐of‐concept” studies. This means that sometimes the targeted patients have no other treatments available and so clearly the impact can be significant. They also continue the clinical pharmacology support to permit registration and, if possible, personalized medicine approaches to deliver the right drug to the right patient at the right time.
ASCPT, through the journal family and the Annual Meetings, has considerably influenced many clinical pharmacologists. To Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont, the Annual Meetings have always been excellent meetings in which he collected and gained critical knowledge and critical networking contacts. The meetings are unique in gathering academic representatives, clinical pharmacology experts, FDA representatives, and pharma industry representatives. He describes the general atmosphere as “incredibly open and encourages all participants to share their views and comments.” He also appreciates that the meetings remain of a reasonable size for efficient and long‐lasting networking.
Because of ASCPT, Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont met and collaborated with Dr. Waldman, Lew Sheiner, MD, and Andre Terzic, MD, PhD. All three of them have served as ASCPT President. While Dr. Sheiner was on a 6‐month sabbatical in Paris, Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont had regular weekly meetings with him. He looks back on this experience as an impressive coaching/training experience. He describes Dr. Sheiner's listening and creativity as fascinating. When Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont moved to Collegeville, he had almost 4 years of regular clinical pharmacology trial performance with Dr. Waldman. His interaction with Dr. Terzic has been limited to the Annual Meetings, but he views these interactions as great brainstorming events. These three encounters have had a big impact on his career because it showed him that his unique passion was clinical pharmacology. He goes on to say, “the diversity and fun we all need in our lives came from changing companies and getting new projects and new drug targets.”
Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont views his ASCPT colleagues in the United States as lucky to have a Society dedicated to clinical pharmacology. He also views ASCPT as a dynamic Society. He supports and applauds the recent move to include the translational medicine concepts in the mission of ASCPT. Overcoming distances and reduced travel budgets for the meeting can be difficult, but Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont will always recommend that his younger colleagues attend the annual meetings. He strongly encourages them to engage and organize symposia or other scientific sessions at the meeting because they serve as unique networking opportunities with other members.
Dr. Boutouyrie‐Dumont became a member of ASCPT in 1997.
