Quality of Medicines Award

Professor Leslie Z. Benet from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines (FFQM) this year.

This lifetime achievement award recognizes Professor Benet’s outstanding achievements in the field of pharmaceutical science and his important contributions to improving the quality and efficacy of medicines.

His research activities focus on the fields of biopharmaceuticals and pharmacokinetics. The results of his work have led to improvements in the properties of medicinal substances and optimization of the dosage forms into which they are processed and ultimately used by patients. In addition, the findings of his research have been incorporated into the guidelines for the approval of medicinal products not only in the USA but also in Europe.

The award ceremony took place on May 15, 2023, at the end of a scientific congress in the Frankfurt Airport Conference Center. On this day, the EUFEPS (European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences) together with the APV (Association for Pharmaceutical Process Engineering) organized a discussion forum on the draft of Part A of the ICH M13 Guideline on Bioequivalence of immediate release dosage forms (ICH = International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use).

The eulogy for the multi-award-winning prizewinner was given by Professor Erem Bilensoy (former EUFEPS President, Hacettepe University Ankara, Turkey), who outlined some highlights of the awardee’s scientific career. In 1986, L. Benet founded the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), of which he was also the first president. For more than 20 years he chaired the Department of Pharmacy at UCSF, which became under his leadership the Department of Biopharmaceutical Science. He supervised 59 Ph.D. theses and more than 130 post-doc students. He has also authored over 570 articles in peer-reviewed journals, more than 100 book chapters and seven books. Professor Benet is listed as one of the „25 Top Pharmacy Professors in the USA“. Because of his scientific work, Professor Benet has received numerous awards and received honorary doctorates from nine universities.

„We are proud to be able to award the prize to such an outstanding scientist,“ explains the founder and Chairman of the Foundation, Professor Dr. Henning Blume, at the presentation of the certificate and the Gömböc, the traditional sculpture of the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines for the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The lecture „Effective and Save: BA/BE Research for High Quality of Medicines“ was held by Professor Peter Langguth, Gutenberg University, Mainz. In this, the elementary importance of drug quality for efficacy and safety when used in patients was worked out. The FFQM has set itself the goal of initiating and supporting research activities to optimize drug quality.

Professor Benet is the third prizewinner whose life’s work has been recognized by the Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines.

In his words of thanks, Professor Benet expressed his delight at the award for his life’s work and thanked the founders Dagmar and Henning Blume for this award. The German fellows from Les Benet were invited to the award ceremony by the FFQM and many of them turned up to honor him. As one of them, Professor Hilde Spahn-Langguth congratulated the award winner in a very personal speech. He was particularly grateful to his fellows for coming and considered himself lucky to meet his former doctoral students and postdocs again.

Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards are:

Professor emeritus Dr. José Augusto Guimarães Morais from the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon/Portugal (2021).
Professor Dr. Laszlo Endrenyi from the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the University of Toronto/Canada (2021 posthumously).