History

AGAH - founded as a consortium
of scientists

Cooperation and advanced education

The Association for Applied Human Pharmacology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für angewandte Humanpharmakologie - AGAH e.V.) was founded in Berlin on 09/04/1991 as a non-profit, scientific-medical specialist society. As a consortium of medical practitioners, scientists and other scientifically interested members in research teams, the specialist society pursues the aim of strengthening early-stage clinical research and improving the planning and implementation of exploratory clinical trials. The members of the AGAH come from the researching pharmaceutical industry, from contract research institutes, from universities and hospitals, as well as from regulatory authorities and from ethics committees.

As a neutral platform, one focus of the Association's activity lies in developing application-oriented concepts in human pharmacology across institutions and discussing them critically. To this end, the Association organises regular training and further education events, realises scientific, challenging annual conferences and publishes on topics from the area of early-stage clinical research.

In the 1990s, the events and publications of the AGAH were conceived in topic-related working groups (e.g. ‘Training WG’, ‘Trial Subjects, Ethics and Adverse Effects WG’, ‘Quality Assurance and Auditing WG’), the chairs of which form the extended Association management board together with the Treasurer and Secretary. The working groups were recruited from AGAH members, who in small groups worked out the respective topics over several years and presented their results at the AGAH AGMs and workshops.

In order to cope with the constantly growing activities of the Association, the AGAH AGM decided in 1999 to change its structure and by passing a new constitution decided to increase the number of board members, who actively coordinate the Association's tasks. President, President Elect and Past President have since then been supported by 15 Regents (from 2020 we will increase this number to 20 Regents), who come up with and implement the AGAH projects. In addition, a 2-year rotation principle was introduced for the Chair of the AGAH, which sensibly combines constancy and change.

since 1991

Advanced education and strengthening clinical research

Scientific exchange and cooperation

AGAH e.V. is in active scientific communication with other clinical-pharmacological specialist societies in the national and international context:

  • Since 1999 the AGAH together with the DGkliPha e.V. (Deutsche Gesellschaft für klinische Pharmakologie) has belonged to the Verbund klinische Pharmakologie in Deutschland (VkliPha e.V.) and participates in this context in cross-organisation congresses with cooperation from, inter alia, specialist societies from Austria and Switzerland. From 2016 a German Pharm Tox Summit (GPTS) was established together with the DGPT e.V. (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Experimentelle und Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie), which once a year brings together clinical-pharmacological, pharmacological and toxicological colleagues from fundamental research and application-oriented research.
  • In 2005 the AGAH and the French Club Phase I (Association des professionnels du développement précoce des médicaments) held their first Joint Annual Meeting in Strasbourg. This mutual annual conference was welcomed by all the participants with so much enthusiasm that a Joint Annual Meeting now takes place every 2 years. European contacts among human pharmacologists expanded over the following years to include the Belgian BAPU (Belgian Association of Phase I Units) and the English AHPPI (Association for Human Pharmacology in the Pharmaceutical Industry) and in Brussels in 2015 resulted in the foundation of the European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development (EUFEMED). The EUFEMED continues the tradition of organising a Joint Annual Meeting at the European level every 2 years. Since the year it was founded, EUFEMED has been recognised as a stakeholder in the area of early-stage medical research by EMA and can speak with a common voice in order to draw attention to the concerns of early-stage clinical research.