Editor's Message

Thanks are due to Dr. Dandiker for his insightful editorials that he has written in the past. I hope I can live up to the high standard he has set.

There are three driving forces in the pharmaceutical industry. Firstly the economic well being of a company is fundamentally related to the amount of new knowledge that it owns and continues to grow. This is accomplished through research, development, partnerships, purchasing and acquisitions. The pursuit of new technical knowledge also relates to the financial well being of a country: businesses in Canada are fortunate in having a Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax incentive that spurs innovation. Second is the generation of material and information that will successfully support an application for marketing approval. This information is generated from almost every function in a pharmaceutical company and makes its way to a Regulatory Agency through a regulatory affairs department. And third is the requirement to be cost effective while maintaining compliance with good practices. Increasingly governments are expecting the industry to be self assessing and as a result the emphasis on Quality Systems has increased.

The research, regulations and rules in these three areas change almost daily, both on a country to country basis and globally. Keeping up with all these changes is a challenge which faces all of us who work in the pharmaceutical industry. Part of the appeal for me of Pharmaceutical Canada is the diversity of the articles which help to maintain my current awareness and interest in the various complexities that constitute the pharmaceutical business. This edition not only keeps me abreast of the changing environment but sparks my curiosity in other directions as well.

Editor In Chief
Dr. Richard Pike