What started out as a chance meeting in Stobhill Hospital twenty one years ago has resulted in an ongoing collaboration between clinicians in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Glasgow and the staff of IRIS (International Clinical Research and Development Division of the French international pharmaceutical company, Servier ).

This collaboration will be formally acknowledged today, Friday 19 March, when Dr Laurent Perret of Servier will receive a Visiting Professorship from the Faculty of Medicine here at the University.

It all began back in 1983 when Perret, then a young French clinician who had recently joined the Servier Company, visited Glasgow for the first time to meet Professor John Reid, then a cardiovascular clinical pharmacologist and Professor of Materia Medica at Stobhill Hospital.

They met to discuss the strategy for the very first trials in man of a new drug with potential to treat high blood pressure. There followed a wide range of clinical research studies in Glasgow (and elsewhere) in patients not only with high blood pressure but also heart failure and stroke. These studies have established the agent perindopril, a member of the ACE inhibitor class of drugs as one of the most effective agents in preventing heart disease and stroke. The drug is now used worldwide.

Nearly twenty one years later, the University and Servier continue to benefit from this dynamic and successful collaboration. In the last twelve years, Servier has established a series of Fellowships which have benefited young clinicians who have gone onto further ground breaking work as medical leaders in stroke, kidney disease and cardiology.

Dr Matthew Walters is the latest in a prestigious line up of clinicians to receive the Servier Fellowship ensuring that collaboration will continue within his field of the mechanisms of stroke prevention and also in the development of effective strategies for delivering cardiovascular protection to the population at risk.

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First published: 19 March 2004