St Peter’s Probus

ON Tuesday, April 12, St Peter’s Probus held its monthly meeting at the Ivy Bush Royal Hotel, Carmarthen.

The chairman, Alan, welcomed members and said that the speaker for the meeting had Covid-19 but thankfully someone who works for an international medicine manufacturer was able to stand in at very short notice and give a talk about medicines development and manufacture.

The chairman then accepted the reports from those committee members responsible for club management: Membership secretary – a post that was unfilled at the AGM but fortunately Eric had been encouraged to volunteer after giving up the treasures role and his offer was accepted by all.

Two new members, Geoff and Mike, were welcomed to the club by the chairman.

The new treasurer Martin sent his apologies as he was unavoidably away. Eric on his behalf said that he did not know the current balances at the bank, but the club had adequate funds available and was financially sound.

Eric reported that the indoor bowls group were now meeting at 10am each Monday and coaching was available.

Welfare officer Arthur said that he had spoken to those members who were not in the best of health and he let members at the meeting know how their fellow members were progressing.

Trip organiser Roger reported on the 2022 holiday to The Hatherly Manor Hotel, Cheltenham, from May 23 to 27 and the day trips that had already been arranged and those that may be available with the itinerary in brief being:

■ May 23: Leave Carmarthen at about 10.30am via Brecon and calling in Monmouth for two hours stop then through the Forest of Dean to Cheltenham

■ May 24: Day trips to Bourton on the Water, Hook Norton Brewery Visitor Centre and calling in at Chipping Norton and Stow on the Wold.

■ May 25: Day trip to Stratford upon Avon and Evesham.

■ May 26: Free day in Cheltenham and possibly a steam train to Broadway an 18-mile ride of about 90 minutes approx. Also, a visit to Tewkesbury town and Abbey.

■ May 26: Homeward bound via a Hereford city visit of about 2 hours and possibility a tour of Bulmer’s cider visitor centre.

Pick-up points:

■ 1) Llansteffan: 9.45am

■ 2) Llangain: 9.50am

■ 3) Johnstown: 10am (Spar shop) ■ 4) Lammas Street: 10.15am

■ 5) Nash Avenue: 10.30am.

The chairman closed the business meeting at 10.30.

St Peter’s Probus reconvened a half an hour later and the chairman introduced the speaker, Iain, the son of a club member who was per chance visiting home and had kindly volunteered his time.

Iain explained that his job was as an engineer setting up and running pharmaceutical tablet packing lines at an international pharmaceuticals manufacturer’s factory but as that subject could be a bit technical and boring he would instead give a brief overview of medicines development from the “need” stage, though development to licencing ready to be marketed.

Iain’s start point was that in life the number one statistic comes from death rates and with the aid of a display chart showed how the average life expectancy at birth had risen over the last two centuries.

In the late 1700s the average life expectancy was about 40 years due greatly to an alarmingly high child mortality rate.

However, with a steady rise in food quality and improvements in hygiene, life expectancy increased to over 50 years by about 1900 when the improvements started to level off.

Fortunately, at this time better medicines had started to be produced and the graph started rising again except for a distinct fall in 1915 caused by the Spanish flu epidemic that was a forewarning of epidemics to come, ie, Covid-19.

From the 1990s onwards with the mapping of the DNA genome a new revolution in medicine had begun. Medicines are now being tailored to the individual’s genome requirements and their particular medical condition.

Though extremely expensive at present the costs are coming down as new techniques are developed on a time span that could be likened to that of the early transistor to the modern super computers.

Iain also explained the mega cost of researching and developing new medicines and the financial risks involved.

Many billions of pounds are spent in getting a drug licenced for use with the risk that at any of the many testing stages it can fail.

Patents must be taken out at the very earliest stages of the discovery to protect the discovery.

The time to develop a product to a marketable stage can be up to half of the patent licence time so the initial product cost must be high to recoup the expenditure and make some profit.

Once the license expires the medicine is free to be exploited on the open market by other manufacturers hence the very high cost of medicines while they are still under licence and the subsequent drop later.

Iain’s talk lasted over an hour and contained a stream of information that was too much and too complicated to be given full credit in this short report.

Iain was kindly thanked by the chairman for a very entertaining and knowledgeable talk and members warmly showed their appreciation even though with an average age somewhere in the upper 70s to 80s the revolution in medical treatments might be thought to be coming a bit late for some.

The chairman closed the meeting at 12.20 and members retired for an excellent lunch at the hotel.