40 Years of the Biopharmaceutical Section: Celebrating our Past, Planning for our Future

Over its long history, the Biopharmaceutical (BIOP) Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA) has fostered community and created a shared sense of purpose among statisticians in the medical product industry. BIOP was founded as the Pharmaceutical Subsection of the Biometrics Section in 1968. As a response to the subsection’s tremendous growth in membership over the succeeding 12 years, it was granted full section status in February 1980. This approval came with one condition, that at least 500 ASA members would join the new Section. Once the membership milestone was reached, the Biopharmaceutical Section (BIOP) formally came into existence on January 1st, 1981. Since its inception, the Biopharmaceutical Section has been one of the largest and most active sections within the ASA. BIOP sponsors the annual Regulatory-Industry Statistics Workshop and the biennial Nonclinical Biostatistics Conference which have been very successful at creating community among statisticians from across government, industry, and academia. BIOP members receive valuable benefits such as web-based training courses; paper, poster, and scholarship awards; membership to scientific working groups; leadership training; and mentoring services. This panel discussion will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Biopharmaceutical Section and discuss how the Section will continue to lead the way to address the challenges of medical product development in the 21st century. Six past chairs will participate in this panel discussion.