Pharmacy, pharmacists and society - Pharmaceutical science and practice with philosophy

In Japanese pharmaceutical community, there seems to be a lack of "Science of Science" and "Research on Research" which are to utilize unit sciences and research for the benefit of human being. In other words, pharmaceutical people in Japan should have much more pharmaceutical philosophy. The late Professor Komei Miyaki, founder Editor-in-Chief of FARUMASHIA, the monthly membership magazine of Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, under whom I worked as one of editorial board members, taught me that scientists should have their own philosophy of their sciences. Such a pharmaceutical philosophy as mentioned above should be established on the basis of complete separation of medical profession between doctors and pharmacists, which form the most important and necessary issue in safety assurance for patients with the complete zero defect (ZD action), as there is a long history for that in Europe since the separation was completed by King Friedrich II in 1240. Therefore, we have to learn the social status of European/American pharmacist practitioners who are the great No. 1 among all the professions. European pharmacists guarantee the safety of every chemical used for human body and pets, such as medicines, cosmetics, foods, tooth stuffs and so on. Regarding the pharmaceutical sciences in Japan also there seems to be a lack of pharmaceutical philosophy, as pharmaceutical scientists have no identity in research object that may be similar to basic scientists who are non-pharmacy graduates. Japanese sciences generally have developed along the lines of the Western model, reaching the current high level. We now not only should receive profits from the outside but also should embark on a mission to support pharmaceutical sciences throughout the world, especially Asian courtiers. At the present, we do not seem to be fulfilling our mission to do that, even though general activity includes significant international exchange. We have to make much more effort for international contribution/participation. For that, the most important and necessary issue is to make change in fundamental sense in Japanese pharmaceutical community, though an internationalization of technological issues is usually taken into consideration. In this connection, regarding the new drug development, we must have a change in the sense to establish pharmaceutical philosophy and jump up in conception from the existing one. Based on the above mentioned pharmaceutical philosophy, seven star pharmacists should be educated as described in 2000 FIP Statement of Policy: Good Pharmacy Education Practice, who could be a (1) care giver; (2) decision maker; (3) communicator; (4) leader; (5) manager; (6) life-long learner; (7) teacher.