Personal milestone
Posted by Andrew Smith on July 4, 2008
The July 2008 issue of CRfocus (19[7]) will be published early next week, and I’ve worked out that this issue is something of a personal milestone. It will be the 75th issue I have worked on since January 2001, when I joined The Institute of Clinical Research. When it hits the streets on Monday, I’ll clink a celebratory glass, but in the meantime, please permit me a little self-indulgence here…
The first couple of issues I worked on were transitional: I was essentially the Managing Editor (not to mention advertising salesman, proofreader and occasional copy-editor), working with the outgoing Editor Guy Moody (who also served with Dave Kill as Guest Editors of the July 2007 issue, while I was on paternity leave). I remember my first issue being put together in an awful hurry, going from almost a standing start in mid-January to liaise with authors, advertisers and printers to publish in mid-February. But we made it!
This is also a milestone issue for Claire Stretton, who designed and laid out all 75 of these issues, being formally appointed Art Director earlier this year. So thanks, Claire. While “I couldn’t have done it without you” can sound rather false, it would probably have been far less fun!
So what has changed in the past 75 issues? Well, the frequency, design, size, typography and use of colour and imagery have been updated several times (most dramatically in March of this year) and we’ve brought in plenty of new types of article, from interviews to tutorials, and opinion pieces to extensive news reporting. But in terms of what’s actually going on?… Well, in issue 12(1) we featured a detailed review of the then-new 2000 Declaration of Helsinki, and the first rumblings of what would be in the near-finalised Clinical Trials Directive. The Declaration is now being rewritten for adoption by the WMA in October 2008, while the Directive is implemented, bedding in, and being subtly tweaked with various guidelines, perhaps preparing the way for a more significant revision process starting in 2010.
Perhaps the most significant other item that’s changed is that the patent expiry/pipeline problems that were a drug discovery department’s bad dream back in 2001 are now coming in to roost throughout pharma, with companies restructuring to reduce their overheads and risk exposure while outsourcing development work in the hope of some of their compounds coming good.
While the past 75 issues of CRfocus have been marked by turbulent regulatory and infrastructure change, the next 75 will be driven more by commercial and managerial change. These are exciting times, if challenging, and I’m looking forward to navigating them with you, in Clinical Research focus.
