ESOP – the world’s largest multinational oncology pharmacy society,
supporting the interests of cancer patients.

Become a member

Dear members and friends,

When we were founded in Prague in May 2000, we hoped to contribute to a great global
development of cooperation in oncology pharmacy.

Unfortunately, the small majority in the ISOPP, which was then made up by a few countries,
voted against allowing regional issues to flow more into society. The course
was set to regard only specialists as actors and all others as additional
members without influence. This hurt me a lot, especially as the outgoing first
elected President, because our motto at the beginning was: “Unity in diversity”.

This also meant that the ISOPP was more oriented towards the interests of financially
strong sponsors and their issues, whereas the ESOP wanted to give members in
the EU as well as around the world the opportunity to find common answers for
daily practice issues. For this purpose, the “Quality Standard for Oncology
Pharmacy Service” (QuapoS) introduced by the DGOP was then developed jointly by
all members from all countries at regular intervals and is now used in many
countries around the world as a guideline for answering questions about dealing
with oncology drug issues.

As early as 2005, the number of members grew so strongly that it was decided to allow
national associations that deal with oncology pharmacy to register their
members as members of the ESOP, with the stipulation that common goals of the
ESOP can be implemented regionally better and more sustainably .

This means that countries that are too small or that are unable to found their own oncology
pharmacy society for other reasons still have the option of naming a regional
contact person.

The activities in oncology pharmacy, which initially extended to therapy in
clinics, have continued to develop. This is not only reflected in the position
paper “High Standards of Oncology Pharmacy”, but also
in the orientation of the QuapoS from manufacturing to patient-related
pharmacy.

ESOP members support cancer patients in community pharmacies, outpatient departments and
clinics. Colleagues in licensing authorities, supervisory offices and
administrations are confronted with questions that deal with treatment but
above all with prevention and pharmaceutical care. They all found a home in
ESOP.

In 62 countries around the world, colleagues are proud to contribute to better
support for cancer patients as ESOP members and thus to make everyone aware of
the role of our profession.

Data protection plays a major role for us. Members are continuously addressed
through newsletters or letters for as long as they want. Information about
individuals is never passed on to external interests or sponsors. We protect
you from unauthorized access as far as we can and continue to count on your
unconditional support.

Yours

Klaus Meier

ESOP President