Editorial

Abstract

I am very pleased to announce that Agam R. Sheth (Merck Research Laboratories), Deliang Zhou (Abbott Laboratories), Francis X. Muller (GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals), and the late David J. W. Grant (The University of Minnesota) were selected to receive the 2006 Ebert Prize. The Ebert Prize is presented annually by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science to the authors of a paper published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (J. Pharm. Sci.), which describes particularly new, original, and novel findings that have a high probability of significantly impacting the pharmaceutical sciences. The Ebert Prize was established in 1873 and it is the oldest pharmacy award in existence in the United States. The award consists of a silver medallion bearing the likeness of Albert Ethelbert Ebert who was a former APhA President. Dr Sheth accepted this silver medallion on behalf of his co-authors on March 19, 2006 at the APhA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA. The 2006 Ebert Prize was presented to Dr. Sheth and his co-authors for their outstanding paper entitled “Dehydration Kinetics of Piroxicam Monohydrate and Relationship to Lattice Energy and Structure” (J. Pharm. Sci., 93, 3013–3026, 2004). This paper describes kinetic data on the dehydration of piroxicam as well as methods for analysis of these data using both model-free and model-fitting approaches. The novelty of this work relates to the use of a model-free approach to describe the complex dehydration kinetics of this drug. The model-free approach allows for changes in mechanism and activation energies during the course of a reaction. The model-free approach described in this paper will help pharmaceutical scientists analyze the complex dehydration kinetics for other drugs; thus allowing them to more rapidly and efficiently develop formulations for human use. This manuscript was highly recommended to the Journal's Editorial Team by the 2006 Ebert Prize Selection Committee which included: Gregory E. Amidon (Pfizer, Inc.), Thomas J. Anchordoquy (University of Colorado Health Sciences Center), Harry G. Brittain (Center for Pharmaceutical Physics), Duncan Q.M. Craig (University of East Anglia), William F. Elmquist (University of Minnesota), James E. Polli (University of Maryland), and Dhiren R. Thakker (University of North Carolina). I would like to take this opportunity to thank these individuals for serving on the 2006 Ebert Prize Selection Committee as well as their service on the J. Pharm. Sci. Editorial Advisory Board. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Sheth and his co-authors for selecting J. Pharm. Sci. as the repository for their excellent scientific work.