Scientific Advisors

John Urquhart, M.D., FRCP

Dr. Urquhart, Professor of Pharmaco-epidemiology, Maastricht University, has an MD (Harvard, 1959), a BA (Rice, 1955), both with Honors, and was a surgical house officer at Massachusetts General Hospital (1959-61). His core scientific interest is in the nonlinear dynamics of hormonal and drug actions. As Professor of Physiology at University of Pittsburgh (1963-70), he studied the nonlinear dynamics of ACTH action on adrenal steroid secretion, recognized by his selection to give the 14th Bowditch Lecture to the American Physiological Society (1969). From 1970, he applied these principles to pharmaceutical product development at ALZA Corp, pioneer of rate-controlled drug delivery systems. As research director during ALZA's formative years, he had a central role in developing such well-known products as the first transdermal patch, TRANSDERM-SCOP; the largest-ever cardiovascular product until 1995, PROCARDIA-XL; the ALZET osmotic minipumps, which made rate-controlled drug delivery practical in basic pharmacology and endocrinology, used in >6000 peer-reviewed studies. Since 1986, his main focus is the clinical and economic consequences of variable patient compliance with prescribed drug regimens. Presently, besides his work in Maastricht, he is Chief Scientist of AARDEX Ltd, Zug, CH, and APREX Corp, Union City, CA, and Adjunct Professor of Biopharmaceuti-cal Sciences at UCSF. He serves on advisory boards of several startup firms, and on the Boards of Directors of Inveresk Research Group (Edinburgh) and NetForce, Inc. (San Francisco). He is an Advisor to the Center for Drug Development Sciences at Georgetown U. and a Trustee of Kettering U. His many honors include the Borden Prize for Undergraduate Research (Harvard Medical School, 1959), Presidency of The Biomedical Engineering Society (1976), NIH Director's Advisory Cte (1986-9), the 1993 External Review of the FDA 's Biometrics Division, an Honorary Doctorate (University of Utrecht, 1997), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1998) and of the AAAS (1999), and CASE Visiting Professorship at FDA (2001). He has co-authored 3 books, over 150 scientific papers, and is named as Inventor on over 40 U.S. Patents.