Digg it del.icio.us AIM Pharmacy exam suspended after charges leveled against Ga. prof
The Associated Press

ATHENS, Ga. --The national agency that oversees licensing of pharmacists has suspended the use of its licensing exam nationwide after a University of Georgia professor was accused of collecting and disseminating test questions to his students.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy made the decision Aug. 23 and suspended use of the tests from Aug. 25 onward, according to The Red and Black independent student newspaper, which first reported the story in its Thursday editions.

The charge against professor Flynn Warren Jr. is leveled in a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 3 by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. The lawsuit also names the Georgia Board of Regents as a defendant.

In addition to suspending use of the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination, the national association suspended the Georgia Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination.

In an Aug. 24 statement posted on the NABP Web site, the agency's executive director Carmen Al Catizone said the tests were suspended "to ensure that the integrity of the examinations is maintained," and ensure that only sound exams are provided to state boards of pharmacy. He also said no decision had been reached about when the tests would reinstated.

Students who had been scheduled to take the test were to take rescheduled exams "later in 2007," he said in the statement.

Warren retired from the university on July 1 but has continued teaching elective classes for the pharmacy school.

The federal lawsuit says Warren asked students who took the test to memorize test questions and share them with him. He collected the tests' contents and created a review packet. The legal complaint accuses Warren of copyright infringement because the NABP owns the copyrights on the exam questions.

Warren refused to comment when reached at home by the Red and Black on Wednesday.

UGA spokesman Tom Jackson told The Red and Black in an e-mail, "parties have been ordered by the court not to comment on the matter while it is in litigation."

A biography on the University's Web site says Warren has been a pharmacy faculty member since 1985. Before his July 1 retirement, he was a clinical professor and the college's assistant dean for student affairs.

Oh my!