The Safety Pharmacology Society salary survey.

INTRODUCTION: Safety pharmacology is a growing discipline with scientists broadly distributed across international geographical regions. This electronic salary survey is the first to be distributed amongst the entire Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) membership. An electronic survey was sent to all members of the Society. Categorical survey questions assessed membership employment types, annual incomes, and professional certifications, along with other associated career attributes. METHODS: This survey was distributed to the SPS membership that is comprised of safety pharmacologists, toxicologists and pharmacologists working globally in the pharmaceutical industry, at contract research organizations (CRO), regulatory agencies, and academia or within the technology provider industry. The survey was open for responses from December 2015 to March 2016. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 28% (129/453). North America (68%) was the region with the largest number of respondents followed by Europe (28%). A preponderance of respondents (77%) had 12years of industry experience or more. 52% of responders earned annually between $40,000 and $120,000. As expected, salary was generally positively correlated with the number of years of experience in the industry or the educational background but there was no correlation between salary and the number of employee's directly supervised. The median salary was higher for male vs female respondents, but so was median age, indicative of no gender 'salary gap'. DISCUSSION: Our 2016 SPS salary survey results showcased significant diversity regarding factors that can influence salary compensation within this discipline. These data provided insights into the complex global job market trends. They also revealed the level of scientific specialization embedded within the organization, presently uniquely positioned to support the dynamic career paths of current and future safety pharmacologists.

The northeast regional SPS meeting update: Safety pharmacology innovations and applications.

The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) held a Northeast (NE) regional meeting in Boston, MA on May 13, 2016 at the Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated site. There were 103 attendees from the pharmaceutical industry, contract research organizations (CROs), academia, and global regulatory agencies. An assortment of scientific topics were presented by 7 speakers that included broad topics in the cardiovascular (organ on chip, statistical power and translation of rat cardiovascular telemetry data and dual inhibition of IKr and IKs on QT interval prolongation) and central nervous system (in vitro platform for neurotoxicity, an integrated risk assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior, and EEG advances in safety pharmacology) and a novel topic discussing preclinical challenges faced in the development of a novel gene therapy. A highlight of the meeting was an in-depth discussion on the fatty acid acyl hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor BIA 10-2474 which involved a comprehensive overview of the biology and pharmacology of FAAH followed by a presentation from the Biotrial (Rennes, France) team that conducted the clinical trial. An additional poster session was held that included 13 fascinating posters on cutting edge safety pharmacology topics.

Pyrimido[4,5-d]azepines as potent and selective 5-HT2C receptor agonists: design, synthesis, and evaluation of PF-3246799 as a treatment for urinary incontinence.

New pyrimido[4,5-d]azepines 7 are disclosed as potent 5-HT(2C) receptor agonists. A preferred example, 7b had minimal activation at either the 5-HT(2A) or 5-HT(2B) receptors combined with robust efficacy in a preclinical canine model of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and attractive pharmacokinetic and safety properties. Based on this profile, 7b (PF-3246799) was identified as a candidate for clinical development for the treatment of SUI. In addition, it proved to be critical to build an understanding of the translation between recombinant cell-based systems, native tissue preparations and in vivo preclinical models. This was a significant undertaking and proved to be crucial in compound selection.