RACI NSW Pharmaceutical Sciences Group Webinar
Aspects of the Science of COVID-19 – Treatment
Thursday 1 October at 4.00 to 5.30 pm
Humanity is waiting for the discovery of an adequate vaccine to prevent the catching and spread of Covid-19 in the community. However, in parallel with vaccine R&D there is a considerable world-wide effort to identify suitable treatments to affected patients. Ideally, in the interests of speedy availability, such treatments would be the use of existing drugs, already registered for other indications. This would alleviate investigations of potential adverse drug reactions and the need to develop manufacturing processes for both compound and drug product.
Three repurposed drugs are described at this webinar by experts in their use, Interferon beta, Dexamethasone and Remdesimir. The first two are thought to alleviate symptoms, the last one may well provide a cure.
Presentation 1
COVID-19: Treatment: Interferon-beta
Natalie Kahwajy, Senior Pharmacist (Antimicrobial Stewardship), Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital
Natalie Kahwajy is a senior hospital pharmacist, specialising in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). She graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) from the University of Sydney and completed her intern year at St Joseph’s hospital, before moving to Bankstown hospital as a rotational pharmacist. She has extensive experience in the provision of clinical services across various medical and surgical specialities, emergency medicine and critical care. Natalie also has a passion for teaching and is a current pharmacy tutor at the School of Pharmacy (Usyd) and a NAPE ITP facilitator. Natalie values research and has presented a number of her projects at national pharmacy conferences. As the AMS pharmacist, she is also an active member of the covid working party for the management of COVID 19 at Bankstown Hospital.
Presentation 2
COVID-19: Treatment: Dexamethasone
Ms Renee Faraj - Senior Regulatory Affairs Associate
- Renee completed her Honours pharmacy degree at the University of Sydney.
- She worked as a community pharmacist for a number of years before joining the pharmaceutical industry in the field of regulatory affairs and is currently a senior regulatory affairs associate.
- Her role involves working closely with the TGA, registering new medicines in Australia, maintaining such registrations and development of material including PIs and CMIs.
- Renee is also a pharmacist educator (tutor) and occasional lecturer at the University of Sydney.
Presentation 3
COVID-19: Treatment: Remdesimir
Prof Jan-Willem Alffenaar, Chair of Clinical Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Pharmacy and Westmead Hospital.
Professor Johannes (Jan-Willem) C Alffenaar is a hospital pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist. His research aims to optimize antimicrobial therapy based on PK/PD principles. He was trained at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. He has been awarded the Young Investigator award of the International Association of Therapeutic Drug monitoring and Clinical Toxicology in 2015. He has been principal investigator of many clinical trials studying pharmacokinetics of antimicrobial drugs and participates in several international consortia. His research in tuberculosis and invasive fungal infections focuses on personalized dosing in a programmatic setting using innovative dried blood spot and saliva sampling. He is expert-advisor on Clinical Pharmacology of anti-TB drugs and member of WHO’s task force on PK/PD of anti-TB drugs. He has published over 250 articles in international peer reviewed journal.
Webinar moderator and host:
Scott Colbourne, Chair, RACI Pharmaceutical Science Group (NSW), Customer Engagement Solution Owner, ALS
The format of the webinar is that each presenter will give a 10-15 minute overview, followed by 5 minutes or so questions after each presentation. There will be a further Q&A session to the conclusion of the webinar.
Follow the instructions and which fields to complete as an RACI member or non-member with care. Members with an RACI account should enter their Username and Password and follow subsequent instructions. Non-members will initially need to “Create a new account” and also follow subsequent instructions.
A $10 charge will be made for RACI members and $30 for non-members for this webinar.
*Registrations close at 12 noon, Wednesday 30 September.
*Zoom Invitation Links will be sent on Wednesday, 30 September after registrations are closed
For any queries on registration, please contact the NSW Branch coordinator, Claire Jung, Tuesday to Thursday, email [email protected] or Mrs Pam Chantrell, Qld Branch coordinator, phone 0499 550 306.
Please also note that previous Pharm Group Covid-19 webinars are: