Spielberg named 2009 Yaffe Award Recipient

Dr. Stephen Paul Spielberg has been named as the 2009 recipient of the Sumner J. Yaffe Lifetime Achivement Award in Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

 

Dr. Spielberg is Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation, Marion Merrell Dow Chair in Pediatric Pharmacogenomics at Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, MO. He is also Professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Prior to joining Mercy, Dr. Spielberg served as Dean of Dartmouth Medical School and vice president for health affairs for Dartmouth College. A leader in medical teaching and research and a children's health advocate nationally and internationally, he is also professor of pediatrics and of pharmacology and toxicology. Before joining Dartmouth, effective July 1, 2003, he was vice president for pediatric drug development at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development in Titusville, NJ. Over the previous 20 years he held positions at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Toronto and its Hospital for Sick Children, and Merck Research Laboratories. Spielberg, whose research interests include mechanisms of idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions and genetic differences in susceptibility (human pharmacogenetics), has championed the needs of ill children in clinical pharmacology and clinical trials. At Johnson & Johnson, he and his department successfully developed new knowledge for labeling medicines for safe and effective pediatric use and helped advance new approaches to clinical investigation in children. He led efforts in Congress in behalf of the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, which passed and was signed into law in 2002. Also, he has promoted pediatric investigation of new medicines, international harmonization of drug development regulations for children, and the highest ethical standards in pediatric investigative programs.

 

His work in this area was recognized by the William B. Abrams Award and Lectureship from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and by the Board of Directors Exceptional Service Award from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Other honors include the Rawls-Palmer Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics the first Werner Kalow Award for Pharmacogenetics and Drug Safety.

 

Dr. Spielberg will receive the Yaffe Award and give the annual Yaffe Lecture at the 18th Pediatric Pharmacy Conference at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel on September 25, 2009.

 

For more information about the Yaffe Award, click here.