Following in the shoes of a legend can be daunting, but for Henri Manasse (Ph.D., '74, Pharmacy Administration) it seems to be a perfect fit.
In July Manasse succeeded the 35-year tenure of Joseph Oddis, heretofore the only executive vice president in American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) history. "Dr. Oddis's name has become synonymous around the world with excellence and leadership in pharmacy," explained the ASHP annual meeting program. The meeting was held in Minneapolis in June.
Manasse, ready to carve his own niche at ASHP, is equipped with good professional experience and thankful for the guidance of such mentors as Dean-emeritus Lawrence Weaver; Hugh Kabat, director of the innovative pharmacy administration graduate program at the College; and Oddis himself. A kick-off for his new position was held at the annual meeting's "Minnesota Night." Friends, faculty, and alumni from his alma mater gathered for a special presentation to honor both Manasse and Oddis.
From 1972 to 1974, Manasse spent his days at Appleby Hall on the Minneapolis campus as a graduate student in pharmacy administration and as an instructor in clinical pharmacy. He received the College's first doctorate in pharmacy administration in 1974.
From 1981 to 1993, Manasse served as dean of the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy at Chicago Medical Center. He worked his way up from bachelor of science pharmacy student to assistant, associate, and full professor and to dean in a mere 13 years. In between, he earned a master's degree in educational psychology as well as his doctoral degree.
Manasse maintained his connection to the University of Illinois after leaving in 1993 to become vice president for health sciences at the University of Iowa. During his three-year tenure as vice president, Manasse was a professor of pharmacy administration at Iowa as well as an adjunct professor at Illinois.
In fall 1996 Manasse joined the ASHP staff in Bethesda, Maryland, as executive vice-president designee. There he joined his fellow Phi Delta Chi Fraternity brother, Oddis, who helped orient him to the new position.
Prior to June's annual meeting, Manasse's last trip to Minnesota was in 1990, when he presented the Melendy lecturer at the College. Again he followed in the footsteps of Oddis, who delivered the Melendy Lecture in 1977.
Of the 261 applicants to the College of Pharmacy, 91 will become the class of 2001 - not a "pharmacy oddessy," but a typical composition of students.
Members of the class of 2001 were selected by the admissions committee, chaired by associate professor Thomas Larson. A majority of class members are female (65 percent), a trend seen at the College for a number of years. Average age is 25, but the class age spans 30 years; the youngest is 19 years old, the oldest is 49. Three out of four are Minnesota residents, up from 66 percent last year. Another 15
percent are from Wisconsin, and the one international student is from Ethiopia.
Applications for the 1998-99 academic year are due February 1, 1998.
For more information call 612-624-9490
or visit the College's web site at www.pharmacy.umn.edu.
Maurice Spiegel's 1927 pharmaceutical chemist diploma from the College of Pharmacy hangs in a prominent place on the wall of his Florida home, right next to his Outstanding Achievement Award, the University of Minnesota's highest honor. The two are significant markers in the life of this 90-year-old, and he's quick to acknowledge that his pharmacy degree enabled him to create the successful Minneapolis-based Lamaur Cosmetics, which he directed for more than 50 years.
Spiegel, developer of such personal grooming products as "Style," the first water-soluble hair spray, maintains strong ties to Minnesota. "The College is like a baby," says Speigel. "You need to support it." True to his word, Spiegel and his wife, Estelle, donated $100,000 to help refurbish the Century Mortar Club (CMC) Student Computer Laboratory, established over a decade ago by donations from CMC. To show its graditude, the College has renamed the lab the Maurice & Estelle Spiegel CMC Computer Laboratory.
In August a fund-raising committee headed by Barry Krelitz (B.S., '62) and composed of CMC, Pharmacy Alumni Society (PAS), and College representatives gathered at a reception in the lab to honor benefactors. Major gifts were received from the CMC, The McKesson Foundation, Inc., and the College, in addition to the Spiegels. Members of the PAS contributed to the effort by spending several evenings calling alumni to secure their financial support.
To manage and operate the computer lab, the College has hired Charlie Betz, a user-services specialist essential to the management and operation of the lab, which students have been using for the past year. Betz serves as administrator of the 24-computer lab as well as reference person and technical support for 170 computer users in the College.
"The computer lab is wired for speed," says Betz. The College appropriated $40,000 for refurbishing the lab and $100,000 for new networking technology. A new fiber-optic link to the Internet transmits information at 155 megabytes per second, more than 5,000 times faster than typical modem connections using telephone lines. These state-of-the-art connections enable students to gather information and send e-mail internationally at the click of a mouse.
The need for outside financial help to make the dream of the CMC and the PAS a reality was great. The fund-raising committee's goal was to ensure that students had the highest-quality equipment and opportunity, explained Krelitz at the reception. And yesterday's pharmacy students reached out to help today's students have exactly that. "The greatest gift from one generation to another is the opportunity to learn," he said. "Vision is important."
The Maurice & Estelle Spiegel CMC Computer Laboratory would not stand as a state-of-the-art learning tool for pharmacy students and practitioners alike if not for the generosity of many donors. They are commemorated on a plaque that hangs in a prominent place in the laboratory. Donors contributing at least $5,000 are also recognized on the screen-saver program of the workstations they sponsored.
Among events at the ASHP annual meeting was a College-sponsored continuing education program made possible through the financial support of SIMS Deltec, Inc., a St. Paul-based medical device company that manufactures and markets several drug delivery systems.
With the help of SIMS Deltec, more than 50 pharmacists from as far away as Saudi Arabia earned continuing education credits at no charge. Associate professor Robert Straka spoke on the management of congestive heart failure. A clinical pharmacist at St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, Straka provides pharmaceutical services in the coronary care unit, conducts research on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy, and trains Pharm.D. students for the College.
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McGraw-Hill has expanded its publishing realm to include subjects related to pharmacy practice. And the first of these books has been written by College of Pharmacy faculty members.
Pharmaceutical Care Practice, to be published this spring, has been written by associate professors Robert Cipolle and Linda Strand and by professor Peter Morley, all members of the Peters Institute of Pharmaceutical Care at the College. The work is an important first edition for McGraw-Hill, which also publishes Goodman and Gilman's: The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics and Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, considered standards for health care professionals.
While the concepts for the book were developed over the past 20 years, the first concrete piece of the future book was based on a July 1988 article on the pharmacist's work-up of drug therapy published in "Drug Intelligence and Clinical Pharmacy." That prompted the Peters Institute team to write a definitive textbook on pharmaceutical care. The team submitted 400 pages to the publisher last October.
A major portion of the book includes the first release of the details and analysis of the Minnesota Pharmaceutical Care Project, the Peters Institute's three-year, $1.2 million study completed in 1995. This project applied the team's approach to drug therapy to real practice models in 20 community pharmacies across the state.
After analyzing data from the study, team members outline the educational needs of pharmacy students who will become tomorrow's pharmaceutical care practitioners. Today pharmacy students at the College take a three-course sequence of classes on pharmaceutical care in their first year of study. Students learn that preventing and solving drug therapy problems are the core of pharmacy practice, says Cipolle, director of the institute.
"There isn't anything on the market like this book," he says. "It has been specifically designed for those who truly want to understand pharmaceutical care and guides them into the everyday practice. I believe it will become standard required text for practitioners and students worldwide," says Cipolle.
The book is a primer on pharmaceutical care practice, not just theory. What makes it particularly significant is that it was composed by worldwide thought leaders on the subject, including Strand, 1997 recipient of the Remington Honor Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Pharmaceutical Association. Strand received the award for her pioneering work that characterized the practice of pharmaceutical care.
A series of texts on pharmaceutical care written by the members of the Peters Institute is probable, says Cipolle. Possible themes include practical case studies, ethical dilemmas, pharmacoeconomics, and laboratory activities for students. In addition, members of the Peters Institute will serve as editors for all McGraw-Hill books on pharmacy.
People with epilepsy and their families have a new treatment available for dangerous repetitive seizures, thanks in part to a decade of research collaboration between the College and Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc., a local pharmaceutical company. Treatment consists of instilling diazepam rectal gel, Diastat, rather than the more dangerous and expensive intravenous (I.V.) route, which must be administered at the emergency room. Diastat was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July.
The rectal gel is a good alternative to I.V. diazepam for patients who take anti-epileptic medications but still suffer from serious breakthrough seizures, known as cluster, serial, or acute repetitive seizures. I.V. diazepam treatment is difficult to administer to someone having convulsions, and it has potentially dangerous side effects such as hypotension, cardiac dysrhythmia, and central nervous system depression.
In 1980 problems with I.V. diazepam gave James Cloyd, professor and director of the Epilepsy Research and Education program at the College, and Robert Kriel, a pediatric neurologist at St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center at the time, the idea to look for an alternate mode of therapy. They were aware of success with rectal diazepam products in Europe, but none were available in the U.S., nor were there likely to be any soon given the cost of development and limited demand. However, they knew Americans could benefit from a commercial rectal product. In addition to alleviating administration problems, a rectal preparation with its rapid absorption and efficacy helps prevent life-threatening brain damage that can result from breakthrough seizures. Effective, efficient seizure management also reduces the stress on both patients and their families, allowing them to resume normal activities and travels without apprehension, Cloyd points out.
The idea for a commercial rectal diazepam product in the U.S. solidified after a chance meeting between Cloyd and Marie DeGayner Kuker (B.S., '83). A possible partnership with Kuker's employer at the time, Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc., which formulates and manufactures many rectal products, was discussed. Prior to this, Cloyd and Kriel had been relying on a rectal solution that was prepared from injectable diazepam. It was cumbersome to prepare, and they knew patients would benefit from a more convenient product.
By the end of 1987, Cloyd had been invited to make a presentation to Upsher-Smith on the concept. He had consulted with other members of the faculty, gaining insights on marketing and product development from professor Ronald Hadsall, on rectal formulation research from professor David Grant and associate professor Nina Graves, and on economic and market studies from professor Stephen Schondelmeyer. The team evaluated the market feasibility of rectal diazepam, determining that rectal therapy is less expensive than I.V. therapy. Savings were conservatively estimated to be more than $1,000 per year per child.
Upsher-Smith management, including president Kenneth Evanstad (B.S.,'67), agreed to formulate and manufacture a trial diazepam rectal gel and seek FDA approval. Needing additional support for the project, researchers from the University and Upsher-Smith went to Washington, D.C., to make a proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Anti-Epileptic Drug Advisory Committee. In 1990, the team's proposal to study the safety and efficacy of diazepam rectal gel in acute repetitive seizures was accepted.
Using Upsher-Smith's formula, the NIH supported efficacy studies of diazepam rectal gel at 10 different institutions, including the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Cloyd served as Minnesota's principal investigator for the clinical trial. The formula proved effective in approximately 60 percent of the patients compared with 20 percent of the placebo-treated patients. The rapid absorption and safety of this product were found to be assets. While some patients reported drowsiness, the gel formula did not significantly decrease respiratory rate as other forms of diazepam can.
In 1991 the Food and Drug Administration approved diazepam rectal gel as an orphan drug. This status allows the manufacturer a tax break and seven years of market exclusivity to compensate for the relatively small market value of the product. In 1993 Upsher-Smith sold the rectal gel formula to Athena Neurosciences, Inc., a pharmaceutical company devoted to neurological disorders. Four years later, Athena received FDA approval to market the drug in a range of doses for both adults and children.
The College provided the idea and the pharmaceutical industry the reality, Cloyd says. "Our collaboration with Upsher-Smith and Athena are models of the partnerships that can exist between the University and the private sector," he says. "It is unlikely that Diastat would have been developed without that partnership."
We are proud to present this honor roll of donors for the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. This report acknowledges the 711 donors who made gifts to the College between July 1, 1996, and June 30, 1997. Together these donors - our shareholders - contributed $754,968.
Capitalizing on the expanding opportunities available in our changing world, alumni, practitioners, student organizations, and corporate partners stepped forward with support for the complete renovation of the College's computer laboratory. Dedicated August 14, 1997, the Maurice and Estelle Spiegel CMC Computer Lab has 24 workstations available 24 hours a day to provide pharmacy students with access to the latest information technology. Named scholarships and contributions from the Pharmacy Buck-A-Year program provided 79 students with scholarships totaling $94,283. Special gifts advanced faculty research, provided equipment, and supported continuing education programs for practitioners striving to enhance patient care.
Good things are happening at the College of Pharmacy. To each and every donor, we extend our heartfelt thanks.
- Laurel Mallon, Development Director
Minnesota's Manasse assumes leadership at ASHP
The class of 2001: Not a pharmacy oddessy
Student computer lab now ready for 21st century
Computer laboratory plaque honors donors
Major Benefactors: Over $5,000
Benefactors: $2,000 to $5,000
$500 to $1,999
College co-sponsors continuing education program at national convention
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Peters Institute book expected to be best seller
College helps develop new form of diazepam
Honor Roll of Donors
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