AA Santos Jr

CR Boeck

D Dal-Secco

Irmgard Tegeder

JS Oliveira

K Starke

Lc Klein Jr

M Ribeiro Silva

M Rocha E Silva

Marcio M. Coelho

Martin C. Michel

MF Montenegro

PH Cotrim Pimenta

RX Faria

English

PubMed

Crossref

Naunyn-Schmiedeberg s Archives of Pharmacology

Emerging country pharmacology: a 10-year perspective from Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology

Springer - Publisher Connector

EDITORIAL
Emerging country pharmacology: a 10-year perspective
from Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology
Marcio M. Coelho & Irmgard Tegeder & Martin C. Michel
Received: 24 May 2011 /Accepted: 24 May 2011 /Published online: 9 June 2011
# The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Having been founded in 1873 as Archiv für experimentelle
Pathologie und Pharmakologie, Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s
Archives of Pharmacology is the oldest existing pharmacol-
ogy journal. Historically, it has been a flagship journal for
German language pharmacology but following publication
of papers in English since 1973, it has increasingly become
international (Starke 1998). In the past, most published
primary research in this and many other leading pharmacol-
ogy journals came from Western Europe, Northern America
and Japan, but in recent years, other parts of the world
increasingly contribute to the advancement of pharmacolog-
ical knowledge. To explore how this is reflected in the
pharmacological literature, we have compared the countries
of origin of published papers in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s
Archives of Pharmacology in 2001 and 2010.
In 2001, the journal published papers with authors from
33 countries. The vast majority of authorships (71%) came
from Western European countries including 30% from
Germany, 10% from Italy, 7% from France, 5% from the
UK, and 3–4% each from Sweden, the Netherlands and
Spain. Classical strongholds of pharmacology research such
as North America and Japan contributed 3% and 9% of
authorships, respectively. In contrast, the rest of Australasia
contributed 8% (including 3% from Australia), Eastern
Europe 6% and Latin America 3% (Fig. 1).
A very different picture emerges for 2010, in which
authors of published papers originated from 28 countries
(Fig. 1). The contribution of Western Europe declined but
remained strong (44% of all published papers) including
24% from Germany, 6% from Italy, and 5% from the UK.
North America and Japan contributed 4% and 7%,
respectively. In contrast, other regions increased their
contributions in both percentage and in absolute numbers.
Thus, Australasia (other than Japan) contributed 23% of
papers, with Taiwan having 7% (slightly passing Japan),
India and the People’s Republic of China 5% and South
Korea 4%. Latin America increased to 10% of published
papers, all but one originating from Brazil. Eastern Europe
had an 11% share, largely driven by papers from Poland.
Thus, in 2001, the five countries contributing to most
published papers were Germany, Italy, Japan, France and
the UK. In contrast, in 2010, the countries contributing
most were Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan with Italy and
Poland sharing the fifth position.
This trend for greater globalization until now is only
partly reflected in the changing composition of the editorial
board. In 2001, all 18 editors of the journal came from
Western Europe, and also the editorial board at large
consisted almost exclusively of Western European scientists
(59% Germans), except for one board member each from
Japan, Eastern Europe and the USA. However, in 2010 out
of 18 editors now only 78% come from Western Europe,
and three from Australasia and two from Northern America.
Among the editorial board at large, 78% come from
Western Europe (including 52% from Germany), whereas
Australasia, Northern America and Latin America are
represented by 14%, 10% and 2%, respectively.
M. M. Coelho
School of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
I. Tegeder
pharmazentrum frankfurt/ZAFES, Department of Clinical
Pharmacology, University of Frankfurt,
Frankfurt, Germany
M. C. Michel (*)
Department of Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapy, Academic
Medical Center, University of Amsterdam,
1105 AZ Amsterdam, Netherlands
e-mail: martincmichel@yahoo.de
Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol (2011) 384:217–219
DOI 10.1007/s00210-011-0659-1
Given that among the emerging market countries, Brazil
showed the strongest gain in published papers in the
comparison of 2001 and 2010 and actually became the
second most publishing country in the journal in 2010, it
may be of interest to analyze how this growing contribution
came about and which topics were of interest to Brazilian
pharmacologists.
Historically, one of the most important steps in the
consolidation of Brazilian pharmacology was the founda-
tion of the Department of Pharmacology of the Medical
School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, in 1955.
That department was initially led by an invited Austrian
researcher, Professor Gerhard Werner, before the arrival
of the best known Brazilian pharmacologist, Professor
Maurício Rocha e Silva, in 1957. Certainly, the biggest
contribution of Rocha e Silva and his close collaborators,
Wilson Beraldo and Gastão Rosenfeld, was the discovery
of the nonapeptide bradykinin that occurred approxi-
mately 8 years before joining that department while
working at the Biological Institute in São Paulo (Rocha
E Silva et al. 1949). The discovery of this peptide and the
characterization of its multiple activities certainly influ-
enced many pharmacologists in the country over the
following years until today, reflected in the classically
strongest research themes in Brazilian pharmacology: pain
and inflammation, control of cardiovascular functions and
activities of animal toxins. There is no doubt that the great
Brazilian biodiversity, the country being home to 15–20%
of the total number of species on the planet, also
influenced Brazilian pharmacology over the last decades.
This is reflected by the great interest of many pharmacol-
ogists in the identification and characterization of biolog-
ical activities of natural products derived mainly from
plants, arthropods and reptiles. Unfortunately, standardized
analysis of the chemical or biological constituents of the
extracts often lags behind the behavioural testing and
hence validation and comparability of the results often
remain elusive. This limits the international interest and
visibility of this research. Indeed this heritage is seen
prominently in submissions to Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s
Archives of Pharmacology, as manuscripts related to
extracts of and compounds derived from Brazilian animals
and plants dominate submissions, particularly those
related to pain and inflammation.
Another initiative that markedly contributed to the
consolidation of Brazilian pharmacology was the foun-
dation of the Brazilian Society of Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics (SBFTE) in 1966. Nowadays,
SBFTE, a member of the International Union of Basic
and Clinical Pharmacology, has more than 1,000 mem-
bers and this number increases quickly. Each year,
SBFTE organizes an important congress in which known
Brazilian and foreign pharmacologists are invited to give
lectures on relevant and current pharmacological themes.
This event is attended by a great number of pharmacol-
ogists and also PhD, MSc and undergraduate students of
pharmacology coming from departments or laboratories
of pharmacology established in approximately 60 different
Brazilian universities.
According to data available at the end of 2009, there are
16 post-graduate programmes in pharmacology in different
Brazilian universities, most of them training MSc and PhD
students. Three of these programmes are open for interna-
tional students and reach high quality according to a
triennial evaluation by Coordination for Improvement of
Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), an agency of the
Brazilian Ministry of Education. In addition to these post-
graduate programmes in pharmacology, there are pro-
grammes in biochemistry, physiology and pharmaceutical
sciences in which researchers contribute to pharmacological
research. Successive evaluations by CAPES show that the
scientific productivity of Brazilian pharmacologists is
rising, both in terms of the number and quality of articles
published in peer-reviewed international journals. Surveys
derived from the 16 post-graduate programmes in pharma-
cology indicate that the scientific output of Brazilian
pharmacologists in international journals of pharmacology
or related fields has increased from approximately 640
publications in 2004–2006 to about 880 in 2007–2009.
These numbers do not include the output of pharmacolo-
gists working at departments of biochemistry or physiology
or in pharmaceutical schools. Further, the 2009 CAPES
evaluation showed an increase of 59% of publications in
journals with impact factors >3.25, as compared with 2006.
The wide range of topics investigated by Brazilian
pharmacologists as published in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s
Archives of Pharmacology in 2010 is documented by
papers on functions of the central nervous system (Boeck
et al. 2010; Ribeiro Silva et al. 2010), the cardiovascular
system (Montenegro et al. 2010), gastrointestinal and
urogenital tract (Klein et al. 2010; Santos et al. 2010),
2001 2010
W Europe
E Europe
Japan
Australasia other
N America
Latin America
Fig. 1 Relative contributions of various regions to published papers
in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology in 2001 and
2010. Note that the relative gains of Australasia are similarly due to
those of Taiwan, People’s Republic of China, South Korea and India,
whereas those of Latin America are almost exclusively due to
increased authorship from Brazil. Papers with authors from multiple
countries were counted with an equal share for each contributing
country
218 Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol (2011) 384:217–219
immunopharmacology (Dal-Secco et al. 2010; Faria et al.
2010), oncology (Oliveira et al. 2010) and biochemical
pharmacology (Cotrim Pimenta et al. 2010). Almost half of
those published papers relate to extracts or compounds
isolated from Brazilian animals and plants (Klein et al. 2010;
Oliveira et al. 2010; Ribeiro Silva et al. 2010; Santos et al.
2010). This is a high percentage as compared to papers
typically coming from Western countries, which is only
mimicked by submissions from Taiwan and South Korea.
Even this high percentage of published papers may be an
underestimation of the role of natural products in present
Brazilian pharmacology because it does not consider the
number of manuscript submissions which do not meet
sufficient priority. Unfortunately, many of those natural
product-related manuscripts remain rather descriptive, par-
ticularly those devoted to pain and inflammation. Frequently,
the active constituents of extracts used in animal experiments
are unknown and are not or only poorly analyzed or
standardized. Hence, the extract often remains a “black
box” which limits the usefulness of the data and strongly
restricts international research with the extract or compound.
Another caveat arises from the frequent lack of in vitro
investigations of the extract or compound before it is tested
in animal models, which can create two problems. Firstly,
while in vivo studies are useful for demonstrating relevance
for a physiological endpoint, they often provide limited
mechanistic insight, particularly at the molecular and cellular
level. In vitro studies often have a greater potential for
mechanistic understanding of in vivo observations. Secondly,
such “black box” testing in animals without prior extensive
in vitro studies would be considered as critical in terms of
animal welfare in Western countries. This also holds true for
some of the pain and inflammation models which are used in
some pain-related natural compound submissions which are
in part not recommended by the International Association for
the Study of Pain in conscious animals. In addition, control
experiments of nervous system side effects which impair
testing of pain and inflammation such as sedation and
disturbances of motor function are often not provided.
Hence, despite the rich potential of future drugs for various
health conditions, reviewers and editors will be often faced
with a lack of information and difficulty to evaluate the data.
Nevertheless, the successful drug development of, e.g.
fingolimod (FTY 720) from the mycotoxin, myriocin clearly
shows that natural compounds are still a promising source
for future drugs even in times of chemical drug design.
In conclusion, the published face of pharmacology is
changing and emerging market countries contribute increas-
ingly. Apparently, based upon their local cultures including
scientific training and funding schemes which differ from
those in highly industrialized countries, emerging country
pharmacology tends to favour a different spectrum of
research fields in which the exploration of natural products
and compounds derived thereof play an important role. This
journal welcomes the diversification of pharmacology as a
science and will strive to provide a growing presence of
colleagues from emerging countries to its editorial board.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which
permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol (2011) 384:217–219 219


Coelho, Marcio M.

Tegeder, Irmgard

Michel, Martin C.

NARCIS 

Emerging country pharmacology: a 10-year perspective from Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology

Blockade of adenosine A2A receptor counteracts neuropeptide-S-induced hyperlocomotion in mice. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Arch Pharmacol 381:153–160 Cotrim Pimenta PH, Cl MS, Noël F

Bradykinin, a hypotensive and smooth muscle stimulating factor released from plasma globulin by snake venoms and by trypsin.

In vivo growth inhibition of sarcoma 180 by latex proteins from Calotropis procera.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3158338

Emerging country pharmacology: a 10-year perspective from Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology

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