One area of study that has all but exploded onto the international scene is regulatory science, and nobody knows it better than Frances Richmond, Ph.D., professor and director of the Regulatory Science Program at the School of Pharmacy. An enthusiastic innovator, Richmond is carefully preparing the next generation of leaders for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries as well as government and policy groups. “Once upon a time, everyone was satisfied with US regulations, but that’s no longer the case,” says Richmond. “Some countries — like Japan — are more stringent than we are, and others have specific constraints. We put our students through rigorous training so they can traverse this uneven terrain.” Richmond is called upon regularly to offer guidance to pharmaceutical companies around the world. In October, she was one of two keynote speakers at the 2008 International Life Science Summit’s FDA Policy Workshop in Hangzhou, China. More recently, she taught a US FDA approval process short course in Korea, where she met up with a former student. Another highly respected School of Pharmacy researcher whose audience spans the globe is Joel Hay, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacoeconomics and policy.
Last summer, for example, Hay was the featured speaker at a three-day conference at the University of Colombia in Bogota, where he discussed the cost of pharmaceuticals and drug usage oversight. Hay brought along one of his Ph.D. students, Marcio Fletes, who served as an interpreter and made his own presentation — delivered in Spanish.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KATHLEEN HILL-BESINQUE considers foreign practice experiences for students an essential piece of the educational puzzle for the new generation of pharmacists.
A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE
These are just a few examples of the global sphere in which the School of Pharmacy operates. In fact, virtually every faculty member has something “global” happening, and students are not far behind. “Collectively,” Dean Vanderveen says, “the opportunities we educators offer our students will have a significant impact on our world and the rapid changes occurring here. Ultimately, our job as a global university is to help a new generation of leaders develop and use progressive approaches that have broadly shared benefits as their objective. If we can do that, we’ll be furnishing the key that unlocks solutions to both local and global problems and makes our small world a better place to live.”
WINTER 2009 | USC PHARMACY MAGAZINE
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