March 15, 2012: Dr. Bob Rappaport Highlights ACTTION in Keynote Lecture
In a keynote lecture presented at the International Research Symposium on Innovative Therapies for Peripheral Neuropathies held in Chicago, Dr. Bob Rappaport, Director of the FDA’s Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Addiction Products, discussed the background, objectives, and activities of the ACTTION public-private partnership.
During his presentation, Dr. Rappaport emphasized the importance of facilitating national and international collaborations among stakeholders interested in improving pain treatments. He highlighted the activities sponsored by ACTTION as an example of the benefits of such collaborations. These collaborative efforts include analyses of pooled legacy data provided by FDA and industry, identifying more efficient clinical trial designs, exploring biomarkers and patient phenotyping, and developing training materials for clinical trial subjects and staff. Dr. Rappaport concluded that these activities and other initiatives sponsored by ACTTION -- for example, a series of consensus meetings and scientific workshops -- have great potential to expand the therapeutic armamentarium for patients with acute and chronic pain and to accelerate the development of mechanism-based treatments.
Dr. Rappaport’s keynote lecture is available here.