To my professor, my inspiration, and my friend…..
The wise, humanitarian, and tolerant man….
To one of the best things life has been generous in offering me….
To you…
Ed Napke
Edward Napke, MD, DPH, is one of the pioneers in pharmacovigilance. He created Canada’s 1st drug adverse drug reaction reporting system in 1965 (later integrated with the National Poison Control Program and various other adverse reaction reporting programs) and brought in the "Non- Smoking in Public Places By-laws” in Ottawa, Canada (1976) as well as other legislation on environmental issues legislation. He has been , since 1990, a volunteer consultant to the WHO’s Uppsala Monitoring Centre, reviewing the results of the regular screenings of ADR reports within the System Organ Classes.2008, annual meeting of the "WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring”, meeting Dr. Napke.
One more interesting thing about him, he was born in Lebanon…and so was very glad to see his own country of birth represented for the first time at the meeting.
Getting his opinion on both projects "Pharmacovigilance in the Middle Eastern countries” &” Pharmacovigilance in paediatric population”, Dr Napke encouraged to focus on the paediatric project as it i’s essential for everybody and contributes to fill the gap in knowledge that is missing all over the world due to the exclusion of children and pregnant woman from clinical trials. Hence, post-marketing surveillance is even more important in case of the paediatric population as more than half of the medications used to treat children are prescribed on an unlicensed or ‘off-label’ basis because they have not been adequately tested and/or formulated and or authorised for use in children. Differences in age and the stage of growth and development during childhood mean that children may experience adverse drug reactions that vary in nature, type and severity from those seen observed in adults.
Over the years we have kept in contact advising me on the various aspects of my projects till finally getting into "addiction” which is, according to him, one of the most serious adverse reactions. In other words, addiction is the unpleasant part that goes hand in hand with the pleasure experienced through substance and/or non-substance use.