A collaborative agreement between pharmaceutical manufacturer Activis Ltd and the University’s Department of Pharmacy was recently signed by Actavis managing director Sergio Vella and University rector Juanito Camilleri.

The three-year agreement covers support towards the department’s teaching and research programmes.

Actavis already has a long-standing history of collaboration with the department. The areas of the department’s teaching and research programmes that Actavis was supporting were identified and formalised in the agreement.

Actavis will henceforth co-ordinate the design and printing of the Journal of Euromed Pharmacy, which features research papers from postgraduate students. The journal is published jointly by the department and the Malta Pharmaceutical Association.

Actavis will also present an award to the student with the best presentation during the Annual Pharmacy Symposium.

Among the student projects Actavis has supported are the ‘Stability study of drugs in transport’ by Helga Farrugia, which was presented during the World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in 2010, the ‘Maltese Medicines Handbook’ by Doriella Cassar, published in 2009, and the ‘Newsletter for Community Pharmacists’ published by Rachel Galea in 2009, and which Caroline Mercieca is currently working on.

The agreement further strengthens Actavis’ involvement in the department’s experiential programmes by establishing student placements and extra-mural practical sessions for students.

These activities will enable pharmacy students to be exposed to the pharmaceutical industry and the different processes entailed in the manufacture of medicines.