June 17, 2016

By Sydney DuPriest

The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy honored four of its faculty members for their excellence in and commitment to research, teaching and service at its annual faculty retreat in June.

Left to right: Robert Doerksen, Katie Barber, Ikhlas Khan, Donna West-Strum and Dean David D. Allen.

Dr. Donna West-Strum, professor and chair of Pharmacy Administration, won the Faculty Instructional Innovation Award for her role in creating and implementing the teaching tool Educating Pharmacists in Quality, or EPIQ. This resource uses cutting-edge techniques to train pharmacists and pharmacy students to measure and improve quality in pharmacy practice.

Along with two other pharmacy quality experts, she received a grant from the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) to answer the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s call for increased education on pharmacy quality.

The program is made available for free on the PQA website, and has been incorporated into over 20 doctoral curricula, including her own. In October of last year, EPIQ won the Duncan Neuhauser Award for Curricular Innovation from the Academy for Healthcare Improvement.

Donna West-Strum receives the Faculty Instructional Innovation Award from Dean David D. Allen.

Dr. Robert Doerksen, associate professor of medicinal chemistry, was awarded the Faculty Service Award for going above and beyond to support the school through service. He participates in a large number of dissertation committees each year, and advises students on their career paths and research. He peer-reviews roughly one journal article per month, and is also a resource for Taiwanese students with the Mississippi Taiwan Students Association.

At the University, he is a faculty advisor to several organizations, including the local chapter of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and has represented the School of Pharmacy to the Undergraduate Council. As chair of the Scholastic Standards Committee, he participated in reviewing applications to the school of pharmacy and interviewing prospective students.

Dr. Ikhlas Khan, associate director of the National Center for Natural Products Research Center, won the Pharmacy Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Research Award. Dr. Khan is also the director of the FDA Center of Excellence, a research professor in the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, professor of pharmacognosy and director of the Sino-US TCM Research Center. Additionally, he serves as the coordinator of the National Products Research Center for Water and Wetlands Research and the director of the University’s Center of Indian Systems of Research of Indian Systems of Medicine. Dr. Khan conducts research that contributes to ensuring the quality and safety of botanical dietary supplements. He has contributed to more than 600 research articles and presented over 100 invited lectures all over the world. He has won many prestigious awards, including one for Outstanding Contribution in Natural Products Research from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Dr. Katie Barber won the School of Pharmacy New Investigator Award for her work with infectious diseases. Dr. Barber has completed two ASHP residency programs in infectious diseases and contributed to 20 peer-reviewed publications. In 2014, she won the Young Scientist Travel Grant Award from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Ralph Didlake was the keynote speaker for the retreat. He is the Associate Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Chief Academic Officer at UMMC.

The Associate Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Chief Academic Officer for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Dr. Ralph Didlake spoke as a guest to the faculty about his specialty of bioethics and medical professionalism.

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Team Rural Health In-House Pharmacy won the UM on-campus portion of the Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge. The team includes (from left ) Nicholas Keeling, Stephanie Sollis, faculty adviser Erin Holmes, Andrew Smelser and Sonja Falvey.

A student team from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy is taking its plan to provide rural Mississippians with better access to affordable medications all the way to the finals of a statewide business challenge.

Team “Rural Health Clinic In-House Pharmacy” won first place in the university’s on-campus portion of the Institutions of Higher Learning Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge, conducted Nov. 7.

The statewide competition is slated for March 12, 2015 in conjunction with Universities Day at the Capitol. Read the team’s full proposal below. For more information on Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge, visit the website at http://www.mississippi.edu/msbc/.

Rural Health Clinic In-House Pharmacy

Our business plan seeks to establish in-house pharmacy services within rural health clinics. Establishing in-house discount pharmacies in rural health clinics of this state and others can provide patients immediate access to affordable medications for their chronic conditions and create a lasting relationship between the pharmacist and patient. A pharmacy in a rural health clinic would allow an ambulatory care pharmacist to provide Medication Therapy Management (MTM) and other clinical services to the patient and patient specific medication therapy recommendations to the physician through a Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA), as well as maximizing effectiveness of therapy and cost savings. A study showed that ambulatory care pharmacists are effective and can save on average $185 per intervention when implemented in clinics. The total savings equated to four times the salary of a pharmacist. This business plan not only benefits ourselves but potentially millions of other lives that could be positively impacted through greater personal health.

The services offered at this site are numerous:

• Basic pharmacy services, such as medication filling, will be provided.
• The pharmacy will not stock hundreds of drugs that are currently on the market to keep costs at a minimum. It will, instead, focus on those drugs that are more often filled, such as chronic disease medications, antibiotics, and contraceptives.
• Through a CPA with the physician, the pharmacist will offer diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension management in order to control these disease states.
• The pharmacy will also offer MTM to make sure that the patient’s medication regimen is appropriately managed and understood and, therefore, compliance is not an issue.
• Basic screenings (blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose) as well as vaccinations and proper prenatal care will be offered.
• Medication and disease counseling, health fairs, community involvement, and patient follow-ups (after visits) will be provided as well.

One examining room or other adequate space is acceptable to house shelves for medications, a refrigerator for temperature-controlled medications, and a desk for the pharmacist with sitting space for the patient. This pharmacy would work closely with physicians to provide the best care for patients and build the patient-provider relationships.

Market and Financials

The market opportunity for our pharmacy business is quite large. Any rural health clinic that does not currently have a pharmacy in-house would be a target. We will focus our initial efforts on areas that have been identified as lacking in health care providers and quality. To inform our population of our establishment, a health fair will be coordinated with the city to demonstrate the services we will be offering and to begin to foster a relationship with the community. The only space need would be one examination room with shelves for medications, a refrigerator for temperature-controlled medications, and a desk for the pharmacist with sitting space for the patient.

Revenue streams will come from a variety of sources. Our primary source will be from prescription dispensing services. Based on estimates that a single physician can prescribed approximately 17,000 prescriptions in a year, prescription revenue could be anywhere between $85,000 to $161,000. These figures are dependent on the type of insurance your population has and the reimbursements and dispensing fees (vary by state). We feel as though these are conservative estimates based off of largely government sponsored reimbursement values.

Additional revenues will come through MTM services for individuals and employers, transition to care services for local hospitals, and from immunizations for influenza, pneumonia, herpes zoster, and hepatitis for those considered at risk. Occasionally insurers will not provide reimbursement for pharmacist administered vaccinations. For those that do not, the pharmacist and physician could establish a contract by which reimbursement flows through the physician’s contracts but the workload is handled by the pharmacy. This would be an attractive selling point to rural health clinics considering implementing our in-house pharmacy.

In conclusion

The ultimate goal for this business is to establish numerous in-house pharmacies in rural health clinics across the nation. We will begin our venture in Mississippi as we know that some of our nation’s worst health outcomes can be found right here at home. However, this idea is quickly adaptable to various situations and types of clinics and we will push to see it expand across the Southeast and further. As our business and revenues grow, economies of scale will provide us with the lower cost and smoother entrance into new markets through increased contracting power.

American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists president Marilyn E. Morris presents Soumyajit Majumdar with the Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Outstanding Research Award.

December 11, 2014

A University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy professor was honored by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists at its annual meeting in November.

Soumyajit Majumdar, associate director of the Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology and associate professor of pharmaceutics and drug delivery, was presented with the Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Outstanding Research Award.

“AAPS receives applications and nominations for this award from researchers around the world,” Majumdar said. “To be selected from such a pool of applicants is a tremendous honor for me and a personal milestone.”

The award recognizes significant contributions brought about by innovative research to understand and effectively apply lipid excipients in the development of oral and topical dosage forms.

Majumdar’s research is in the field of transmucosal drug delivery, i.e., administration of drugs through a mucous membrane. His studies focus particularly on delivery to the eye. A large portion of his formulation work is based on lipid-based systems such as nanoemulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers.

“My studies have demonstrated that solid lipid nanoparticles, with or without surface modification, can significantly increase ocular penetration, retention and bioavailability of lipophilic drug and drug candidates,” he said. “Increased retention and ocular bioavailability will have a significant positive impact on therapeutic outcomes in diseases affecting the eye.”

Additionally, Majumdar worked with a team in the Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery that developed a novel process to prepare solid lipid nanoparticles using hot-melt extrusion technology.

Michael A. Repka, chair of the pharmaceutics and drug delivery department, said that Majumdar’s award is even more prestigious because it hasn’t been given since 2011.

“For the past two years, no researcher met the criteria for this award,” he said. “The fact that AAPS selected Dr. Majumdar for the 2014 honor is significant but not surprising. It is well-deserved, and I am extremely happy for him.”

Majumdar has been a member of AAPS since 2002. He served on the organization’s Nasal Drug Delivery Focus Group Committee and was also chair of the AAPS student chapter at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He said that receiving the award was motivational.

“This recognition will further stimulate and invigorate my research interests and efforts in this field,” he said.

The first titan arum bloom at UM.

June 11, 2014

By Erin Garrett

Visiting the Maynard W. Quimby Medicinal Plant Garden at the University of Mississippi can feel like stepping into a tropical rainforest – their greenhouse is filled with rare and unusual florae.

One of these species, the titan arum, is among the most extraordinary in the garden’s collection. The plant has the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. One of the garden’s 21 titan arum plants recently bloomed and another is blooming now.

This is a rare occurrence for a number of reasons.

“Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is an endemic species, found naturally only in the rainforests of Sumatra in Indonesia,” said Vijayasankar Raman, systematic botanist for the National Center for Natural Products Research. “The plants take about five years or more to start flowering and subsequently bloom infrequently, once in three or four years, and even more rarely in cultivation. Whenever the plants bloom, they make a headline.”

The garden’s first bloom, which occurred in May, grew slightly over 4 feet tall. It was the world’s first recorded bloom of 2014. The new bloom is already 5 feet tall.

The plant has an almost otherworldly appearance. Its inflorescence is composed of the spathe, a petal-like structure, and spadix, the central column. The spathe becomes a dark crimson color as it blooms.

Adding to the bizarre nature of this species, titan arum is commonly known as the “corpse flower.” It emits heat and an odor similar to the smell of a decomposing mammal in order to attract flies and beetles that pollinate the flowers. Raman said that it is “one of the most malodorous plants in the world.”

The garden’s staff has taken great care to ensure conditions are suitable for blooming. Ed Lowe, senior research and development horticulturist, has worked extensively with the plants.

“I have repotted these plants at least four times, over a five-year period,” Lowe said. “The last time was the hardest due to the size of the plants and pots. The staff at the garden, tries to keep all plants watered, fertilized, and repotted to the best of our ability, at all times. We want them all to bloom.”

Raman encourages spectators to visit the garden while the plant is blooming.

“This is a spectacular and giant flower,” he said. “Only a few gardens in the world have this priceless collection of plants. It is a rare opportunity for us to observe this occurrence.”

To visit the garden and view its newest titan arum bloom, contact Lowe or Lal Jayaratna at (662) 915-1620.

OXFORD, Miss. – A process to evaluate research at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy has come full circle with a reorganization of the school’s departments.

The school recently changed from six departments to four.

OXFORD, Miss. – Walter J. Pierron Jr. has a longtime appreciation for the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi.

“I have many fond memories from the pharmacy school,” said Pierron (BSPh 54), a native of Monroe, Louisiana. “I made a lot of friends with the faculty and students. The university has an atmosphere that is so enjoyable, and that’s one of the things I remember most.”