AAPS FAVORS DEVELOPING RELATIONS WITH APhA/APS

AAPS FAVORS DEVELOPING RELATIONS WITH APhA/APS, according to an Aug. 6 letter from American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' (AAPS) President Leslie Benet to members of the new association. Referring to his group's troublesome split from the American Pharmaceutical Association/Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (APhA/APS), Benet maintained: "What appeared to be a divisive struggle only six months ago is probably no longer a struggle and may prove, in the end, to better serve both the scientific needs of the scientists and the professional needs of the pharmacists." Benet and pharmaceutical research colleagues separated from their APhA/APS affiliation last March in what was reported as an APhA "schism." Benet declared that the "one overriding reason" for forming an independent society of pharmaceutical scientists was "the fact that [APhA] President Schlegel and the Board of Trustees have adopted the philosophy that APhA must operate as a single strategy center." President of APS at the time, Benet urged a federated approach that would give APS a greater voice within the APhA organization. In his August letter, Benet reported that one of the three difficulties "that could prevent the development of excellent cordial relations between APhA and AAPS . . . has been resolved." Benet was referring to APhA's invitation that AAPS cosponsor the JUC Pharm Sci meeting between U.S. and Japanese pharmaceutical scientists, to be held in Hawaii in December, 1987. Furthermore, Benet predicted that the other two issues, "the quarter of a million dollar reserve in the APS treasury which pharmaceutical scientists had raised over the years" and "the endowed scientific awards such as the Higuchi Research Prize and the Kolthoff Gold Medal for which funds were raised exclusively by the efforts of pharmaceutical scientists" would also be resolved with time. "As the scientific scope and goals of APhA and AAPS become better defined," Benet suggested that "a moral legacy (as opposed to a legal right) will develop with respect to the funds involved."