Press release
, 14.10.2004
Medical students offered incentive to choose family medicine as their specialty
Family physician shortage hitting crisis proportions

Oakville, ON, October 14, 2004 – ALTANA Pharma Inc. launched the ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship, a $125,000 scholarship fund that will give select medical students at the five Ontario medical schools $5,000 a year if they pursue family medicine as their specialty.

“The scholarship program was designed to help address the severe shortage of family physicians in Ontario,” says John Suk, president and CEO of ALTANA Pharma in Canada. “It allows us to do something at the supply source – medical schools.”

The cost of a medical school education is rising precipitously. According to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, average tuition fees in Ontario for medical school have risen 407 per cent from 1993/94 to 2003/04. In real dollars, that is an increase from $2,838 a year to $14,389.

To help attract Ontario medical students into the practice of family medicine, ALTANA Pharma Inc. (representing the pharmaceutical group ALTANA Pharma AG in Canada) is providing annual family medicine scholarships to students at University of Toronto, McMaster University, University of Ottawa, Queen’s University and The University of Western Ontario. Each medical school receives $5,000 a year for the next five years for one annual scholarship.

“The cost of a medical school education is an important issue for students, as tuition is high, particularly in Ontario,” says Dr. John Kelton, Dean of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “These scholarships shall help encourage medical students to pursue a career in family medicine, and will mean a lot to the medical students who receive them.”

The ALTANA Pharma Family Medicine Scholarship was created as a result of a recent forum sponsored by ALTANA Pharma and the Ontario College of Family Physicians. Recognizing that family medicine is the cornerstone of the Ontario health-care system, the forum’s report called for more encouragement of medical students to go into the field of family medicine. Today’s announcement is partly a result of this forum.

“The shortage of doctors in family medicine is putting more stress on those practicing and gives medical students the impression that it is the toughest job in medicine to do,” adds John Suk. “We hope today’s announcement acts as an incentive for every qualified student to consider family medicine as their preferred area of practice.”

Recently named as one of the top 100 employers in Canada by Maclean’s magazine, ALTANA Pharma Inc. was established in Canada in 1997 as Byk Canada Inc., and changed its name in July 2002. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, the company is constantly growing with over 200 employees across the country. ALTANA Pharma participates in research and development for new pharmaceuticals and annually re-invests approximately 12 per cent of sales in research in Canada. ALTANA Pharma Inc. in Canada is one of the core companies for the international development of new chemical entities for ALTANA Pharma AG. The company has been involved in clinical research projects across Canada in the areas of respirology, critical care and gastroenterology.

1 The Ontario College of Family Physicians


For more information contact:
Kate Bradley / Toni Peet
Environics Communications
416-969-2732 / 416-969-2719
kbradley@environicspr.com
tpeet@environicspr.com
Natasha Bond
ALTANA Pharma Inc.
905-465-4171
natasha.bond@altanapharma.ca