Toronto, ON, November 18, 2005 –   ALTANA Pharma has announced the 2005 recipients of the ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship – a fund that each year gives five medical students across the province a $5,000 scholarship if they pursue family medicine as their specialty.  The recipients were honoured last night at a reception in Toronto at the 43rd Annual Scientific Assembly of the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP).

The 2005 ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship recipients are:

Caroline Collins - University of Toronto
Catherine d’Anjou - McMaster University
Douglas Hall – Queen’s University
Scott McIntosh - University of Western Ontario
Kristy Staples - University of Ottawa

The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship was the result of a forum sponsored by ALTANA and the Ontario College of Family Physicians which addressed the shortage of family physicians in the province.  As part of the solution, the forum's report called for more encouragement of medical students to go into the field of family medicine.  Thanks to the scholarship fund, in five years, 25 more family doctors will have been put into the system.

"It's encouraging to see this program is working as an incentive for medical students to pursue a career in family medicine." says John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma in Canada. "We hope this scholarship fund also helps students to defray some of the costs associated with their medical school education."

ALTANA Pharma also has invited the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine to participate in this program once their first wave of students are closer to the point of choosing a specialty.

"We thank ALTANA most sincerely for their efforts to support family medicine in this province," says Jan Kasperski, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario College of Family Physicians.  "Family physicians are the cornerstone of our Canadian health-care system. Encouraging students to pursue family medicine at this period of great shortages is critical, otherwise the system will crumble."

ALTANA Pharma adds value by improving the health of Canadians through people, innovative products and Canadian-based research in respirology and gastroenterology. Designated as A Caring Company by Imagine Canada, ALTANA Pharma was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Maclean's. Please visit http://www.altanapharma.ca/. ALTANA Pharma Inc. is the Canadian pharmaceutical division of ALTANA AG (Germany).

The Ontario College of Family Physicians is a provincial chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and is a voluntary, not-for-profit association that promotes family medicine in Ontario through leadership, education and advocacy. The OCFP represents more than 7,200 family physicians providing care for remote, rural, suburban, urban and inner-city populations in Ontario. The OCFP is the voice of family medicine in Ontario.  At the heart of the organization is the building and maintenance of high standards of practice and the continuous improvement of access to quality family practice services for all residents of Ontario.


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