key: cord-0757471-r7ecz5be
authors: Cracowski, Jean-Luc; Molimard, Mathieu; Richard, Vincent
title: Ultrafast response of the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics to the COVID-19 pandemic
date: 2020-06-06
journal: Therapie
DOI: 10.1016/j.therap.2020.06.002
sha: b7eafe14f4a401f86f3aa0efe325cb609a757656
doc_id: 757471
cord_uid: r7ecz5be

nan

Therapies (2020) 75, [317] [318] Available online at ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major global health crisis. In the context of our democratic societies, the management of information available to the general public has proved to be complex, partly due to the many public and private actors involved in the epidemic setting [1] . The treatment of information by the media has also been extremely anxiety-provoking because of the contradictory statements made by politicians and scientists, in a context of total uncertainty about the scale of the pandemic and our ability to control it. It soon became clear that a large part of the general public's questions was related to drugs.

As early as Monday March 16, at 3 p.m., the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT) set up a working group on ''drugs and COVID-19'' consisting of a scientific council, an editorial board and field experts [2] . The scientific council included representatives of the French College of Medical Pharmacology (CNPM), the National Association of teachers in Therapeutics (APNET), the national network of pharmacovigilance centers, the Clinical Pharmacy Faculty College (ANEPC), the French Association of Addictovigilance Centers and the young pharmacologists group of the SFPT. Within 24 h the council launched the website https://sfpt-fr.org/covid19. The objective of this web platform was first to answer questions from the general public about their medications for chronic diseases in the context of the pandemic, and secondly to inform the public about medication use in the event of COVID-19. The first questions were posted on March 17, 2020. The results of the first 6 weeks of activity show how much the general public was keen to obtain validated information [2] .

In addition to the general public website, the scientific council commissioned from experts in the field a series of scientific articles for a medical audience. The main themes selected are presented in this special issue of Therapies. Joachim Alexandre has the advantage of speed, having started writing an article on the theme ''angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers in COVID-19 patients'' on March 16, 2020, posted in French on the SFPT website on March 20, 2020. Matthieu Roustit wrote the article on the burning issue of ''Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in the management of COVID-19'', which has been updated many times according to the continuously new literature. Thomas Soeiro, in parallel with his response to the British Medical Journal to counterbalance the very cautious opinion of English colleagues concerning the risk associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [3] , wrote the review concerning these drugs and COVID-19. Finally, Béatrice Duly reviewed early evidence on the treatment of diabetes in the context of the pandemic.

It is obvious that offering today high-quality information is no longer enough for a scientific society [4] . This crisis has highlighted the major role of the media, both positive and negative, in the consequences of the crisis. Many times, we have had to learn quickly how to communicate effectively in mainstream newspapers, on television, radio, Facebook and Twitter. During this crisis, the dissemination of drugrelated information has no longer been limited to scientific circles, and the omnipresence of real and false information in the media has put pressure on the decisions of regulatory authorities.

This crisis has shown that a scholarly society, the SFPT, had the capacity to coordinate an ultra-fast response by immediately creating a public website of validated information on medicines in the context of crisis, and to communicate on this subject. Now, we must seize this impetus and discuss the best way to provide validated information to patients in all fields on the proper use of drugs.

The authors declare that they have no competing interest. 

Internet searches for unproven COVID-19 therapies in the United States

Genesis of an emergency public drug information website by the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics during the COVID-19 pandemic

Re: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and covid-19

Addressing health-related misinformation on social media