Welcome PIP Pharmacy has become international.
The pharmacist must become international likewise.
This was the conclusion of an address presented in 1962 by Sir Hugh Linstead upon receiving an honorary membership in APhA. Sir Hugh was then serving as president of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and has subsequently steered a course of "internationalizing" FIP. It was the same year (1962) that Dr. D.A. Wittop Koning, noted pharmaceutical historian of The Netherlands, recommended in a 50th anniversary history of FIP that "FIP should understand that, if it is to remain a world organization, a meeting in America is necessary." That goal is now a reality with the 31st International Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Washington, D.C. The FIP Washington Congress is not our first international meeting. In 1890, the American Pharmaceutical Association officially extended an invitation to hold the Seventh International Congress in the United States (the first such Congress having been held in Brunswick, Germany, in 1865). Thus our first international meeting was held in the Art Palace of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, August 21-23, 1893. It was not until November 1957 that U.S. pharmacists played host to their second international meeting. The Fourth Pan-American Congress of Pharmacy and Biochemistry attracted over 600 Latin American pharmacists. FIP is the world's oldest international pharmaceutical association, holding its First General Assembly in The Hague in 1912. While no U.S. pharmacist attended, APhA submitted the following messageThe American Pharmaceutical Association congratulates the International Pharmaceutical Federation upon the work which is being done for scientific pharmacy in raising the standard of pharmaceutical education, advancing needful legislation, and improving the status ofpharmacists throughout the world. APhA pledges its support of FIP in all movements which will elevate pharmacy. We desire friendly relations with your body, and we tender you our best wishes for the success of your Federation.
FIP General Assemblies were suspended during World War I, and when re-instituted in 1922, an invitation was submitted to APhA to become a member, accepted by the APhA Board of Directors in 1924 and voted full membership at the 1925 FIP General Assembly. APhA extended its first of many invitations to hold a meeting in the U.S. during the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress, but the invitation was declined. Subsequent efforts were made to hold an FIP meeting in the U.S. in 1952 and 1957, but the response from FIP was that "I cannot see how it will be possible for any substantial number of European delegates to afford to make the trip." Prior to the introduction of the "jet· age" of travel, questions of worldwide attendance at a meeting in the U.S. were understandable, but the outstanding attendance at the Fourth Pan-American Congress in 1957 proved that transportation was no longer a major obstacle. With the support of the APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, APhA extended a formal invitation to hold the FIP International Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the U.S. in 1971, and the invitation was accepted in 1968. (See program on pages 498-504.) In December 1970, your editor notedIt is now our turn to see that our colleagues from all corners of the world who will be attending the 31st International Congress ofPharmaceutical Sciences are received with warmth and hospitality. To achieve this objective, we call upon every pharmacist in the USA to lend his support and assistance.
Cooperation has been gratifying, and on behalf of all U.S. pharmacists we welcome FIP. It was Dr. J.H.M. Winters, current president of FIP, and an honorary member of APhA, who notedIn a world that is often tense, uneasy and divided, it is comforting to find a Congress such as the one we are about to attend. The spirit in which participants come from the four corners of the earth to listen, learn and make friends shows an urgent need for unity often belied by newspapers, radio and television. It is for this reason that I hope everyone will leave feeling that they are part of a group bound not only by common professional interests, but also by friendship.
-George B. Griffenhagen Vol. NSll, No. 8, August 1971
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