UB lecturer Salvador Cañigueral, new chairperson of European Pharmacopoeia
Salvador Cañigueral, lecturer of the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutical Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the UB, has been appointed new chairperson of the European Pharmacopoeia Commission for the 2022/2025 period. Cañigueralʼs appointment, to be valid after June, took place during the 172nd meeting of the Commission, this March in Strasbourg in a face-to-face and online session.
Salvador Cañigueral, to date first vice-president of the Commission for the 2019/2022 period, will be the 20th president of this European Council body and will replace professor Torbjörn Arvidsson, member of the Swedish Medical Products Agency.
Salvador Cañigueral, lecturer of the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutical Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the UB, has been appointed new chairperson of the European Pharmacopoeia Commission for the 2022/2025 period. Cañigueralʼs appointment, to be valid after June, took place during the 172nd meeting of the Commission, this March in Strasbourg in a face-to-face and online session.
Salvador Cañigueral, to date first vice-president of the Commission for the 2019/2022 period, will be the 20th president of this European Council body and will replace professor Torbjörn Arvidsson, member of the Swedish Medical Products Agency.
European Pharmacopoeia: quality rules for medical products
The term pharmacopoeia —from the Greek φαρμακοποιΐα— refers to the recompilation of knowledge on the preparation of medicines. In particular, the European Pharmacopoeia is a unique reference work for the quality control of drugs, valid for the 39 European states that signed the Convention for the elaboration of the European Pharmacopoeia. It depends on the European Council European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Health Care (EDQM), whose head office is in Strasbourg, and its aim is to publish the official standards that build a legal and scientific basis for the quality control during the processes of development, production, and marketing of the medical products.
Its decision-making body is the Commission of European Pharmacopoeia, formed by the delegations representing the 39 European states signatories of the Convention for the elaboration of European Pharmacopoeia, and it is also in charge of the technical decision-making by consensus. It also works on maintaining the content that gets published in the Pharmacopoeia.
Salvador Cañigueral is a member of the UB Research Group on Neuropsychopharmacology of Amphetaminic Derivates, and has focused its research activity on the study of the chemistry and bioactivity of medicinal plants, as well as the development of quality control methods of plant drugs and preparations used in medicines, food supplements, cosmetics and feeds.
Since 1992, he has collaborated with the Royal Spanish Pharmacopoeia as a member and president of the groups of Pharmacognosis and Phytochemistry. He has presided the National Committee of the Royal Spanish Pharmacopoeia and the National Form of the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Products (AEMPS). Since 1999, Salvador Cañigueral has collaborated as expert in the European Pharmacopoeia, and he is a member of the group on Rules of Procedure of the mentioned institution, and of the group on plant extracts and the 13B expert group —currently presided by him— and 13A, focused on the field of herbal drugs and preparations.