Last December 2nd 2021 we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation (FTH).

We kindly like to thank the institutional presence of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, with the collaboration of Professor Sánchez-Ferrer, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and the Community of Madrid (CAM), in the figures of Mr. Fidel Rodríguez-Batalla, the Vice-Minister of Universities, Science and Innovation, and Ms. Teresa Chavarría Giménez, the General Director of Research, Teaching and Documentation of the Ministry of Health.

Mr. Rodríguez-Batalla highlighted the work of the FTH in terms of the transfer of knowledge from the academic scenario to society while Ms. Chavarría pointed out the relevance of our work in clinical research and strong collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry. Due to such smart collaboration we have contributed to developing numerous medications available to patients today. Doctor. Josep Vergés Milano, from Osteoarthritis Foundation International - OAFI, stressed that the key to all of our activities is to establish the focus on the patient.

Professor Antonio García, President of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation (FTH),  Professor Manuela G. López Director of the Teófilo Hernando Institute (ITH), and Mr. Arturo García de Diego, General Manager of the FTH, along with other colleagues and collaborators on a regular basis of the FTH, reviewed the figure of Mr. Teófilo Hernando, as well as the work of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation and their interaction with other institutions from the public and private sectors throughout these 25 years: allowing attendees to acknowledge the enormous work of our institution from a broad perspective: Science, Teaching and Humanism.

From the Board of Trustees and Management of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation, as well as all the FTH staff members, we wish to express our gratitude to everyone who accompanied us in such a special celebration for their assistance.

Colleagues, collaborators, clients, students, patients... Let's go for another 25 years together!

Thank you. 

TEÓFILO HERNANDO FOUNDATION

25 Years is a good age to slow down, and take some time to think about the achievements and failures of an institution; its present, and future goals. The Teófilo Hernando Foundation took its first steeps on the 22 of July, 1996, with Professor Pedro Laín Entralgo as the president of the Board of Trustees, which was followed in the position by Professor Pedro Sánchez García.

Now, in 2021, it is time to ponder and think in the Foundation’s initial purpose and its development from the beginning of our activities until today. The objectives of the FTH are:

1. Clinical Research and Clinical Trials

2. Support pre-clinical research through the R&D Teófilo Hernando Medicines Institute (ITH) and the department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (DFT), medical school, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)

3. Training in medicines R&D+i for investigators

4. Corporate social projection

The FTH is living promising times; with the hope of becoming, together with the ITH and DFT, in an international, integral center for Medicines in the UAM and the community of Madrid. To celebrate our “Silver anniversary” we organized an event dedicated to our staff, clients, academic and sanitary authorities, and patients and relatives who are our main concern and the principal focus of our efforts to improve their health and quality of life. Welcome to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the FTH!

PROFESSOR TEÓFILO HERNANDO ORTEGA

Teófilo Hernando Ortega, was a man far ahead of his time in the pharmacology field in Spain. He was born on the 14th of April, 1881 in Torreadrada, Segovia, and died in Madrid on the 7th of March, 1976, close to his 95 birthday.

D. Teófilo Hernando studied in Madrid, where was deeply influenced by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Pedro Olóriz and Alejandro San Martín. He did his internship in the Hospitals Clínico and General of Madrid and was a physician on the Madrilenian municipal charity organization. He became associate professor of the medicine school in Madrid and, in the year 1912, chair professor of therapeutics and the art of prescription in the medicine school in the Central University.  

He continued his studies in Strasburg, in the Pharmacology institute stablished by Oswald Schmiedeberg at the end of the XIX and the beginning to the XX century, were he studied the cardiotonic glucosides.

His was the credit to firstly understand the need of a discipline that focused on the clinical managemen ot the drugs and their associated risks, and was responsible to include this subject in the medical school program. This is the reason why D. Teófilo is considered as the first to introduce the subject that later on was called “Clinical pharmacology”. Iatrogenesis was the great concern of his academic life, and he was dedicated to taught the challenging art of the rightful, cautious and precise prescription of medicines. The Foundation Teófilo Hernando (1996), whose 25th anniversary we celebrate this year, and the Institute Teófilo Hernando R&D (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), were named after him to remember and honor the figure of the first Spanish pharmacologist.