125 stories for 125 years

Graeme Blackman

Dr Graeme Blackman has been involved in pharmaceutical research and consultancy since 1977, when he was appointed to the staff of the college. He was Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry from 1982 to 1986 and since then has been chairman and managing director of the Institute of Drug Technology Australia (IDT).

Dr Blackman is a director of Medicines Australia and chairman of the Leaders Group of the Commonwealth Government’s Action Agenda for the Pharmaceutical Industry. He is also chairman of Anglicare Victoria, Chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Industry Action Agenda Implementation Group.

In 2003, Dr Blackman was awarded a Centenary Medal for his contribution to the profession and for his services in providing leadership in the pharmaceutical industry. In the same year he also received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Leighton Memorial Medal, awarded for eminent services to chemistry in Australia.

IDT is one of a few companies around the world that specialises in containment expertise in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). They specialise in handling some of the most toxic substances in medicine. IDT scientists take new drug compounds to market by first learning how to make the drugs, then make them in commercial quantities and finally, transform the active ingredient into the form of a finished pill or fluid.

"We have focused on anti-cancer drugs, cytotoxic drugs, and they are just that, toxic. They have got to be handled very carefully, chemotherapy drugs."