The founding members of PIN are leading policy-makers and researchers from the community pharmacy organisations that comprise Pharmintercom, including the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Canadian Pharmacists Association, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand, the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa, the National Pharmaceutical Association (United Kingdom), the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (United Kingdom) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (United States).

For at least 15 years, the leaders of these organisations have met annually to discuss profession wide development, and issues of current and best practice in community pharmacy practice. It was at a meeting of Pharmintercom representatives in 2003 that concerns about limited international collaboration between researchers and policy makers were raised. The following year, in response to these concerns, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia briefed Pharmintercom representatives on a pilot project it had funded to establish the PIN network.

One nominated participant from the research community located within the 7 countries indicated above also make up the PIN network. In Australia, the nominated researcher is Professor S.I. (Charlie) Benrimoj, Assistant Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health Sciences) at the University of Sydney. PIN is presently based at the University of Sydney and operates under the directorship of Professor Benrimoj.

Additional participants are subject to Pharmintercom approval, however if you would like to discuss joining this network, please contact either Professor Benrimoj (benrimojc@chs.usyd.edu.au) or Fiona Hilferty (fionah@pharm.usyd.edu.au).