EPF President selected as patient representative to EMA’s Management Board

Brussels, 14 June 2019 – EPF welcomes the official announcement and confirmation that our President, Dr Marco Greco, is appointed as one of two patient representatives to the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Management Board. This follows a decision of the Council of the European Union on 6 June 2019. The appointment is for a three-year term starting on 15 June 2019.

Marco has had a long track record of working with the Agency, as a member of the Patient and Consumer Working Party (PCWP), and for six years, serving as a patient representative on the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) - a first for the Agency.

“I am honoured, proud and excited to be taking on this new role, and building on the excellent work that my predecessor, Yann Le Cam, and others fulfilled. Arguably, we have never been at a more critical juncture in medicines regulation. Science is evolving tremendously, societal expectations are signficant, sustainability, in every sense of the term, features prominently in many debates. There is uncertainty out there, not least with Brexit. The regulatory environment is clearly embracing digitilisation and the power of health data. This brings huge opportunities but also ethical, and change management issues to the fore.

The patient's voice, reflecting what really matters to patients, at the end of the day, has been central to the EMA's strategy over the last few years, and I am confident that our input in the management board will continue to resonate this. Patient safety, benefit -risk, and real world evidence informing the regulatory community to make the best possible decisions, are, for me, fundamental.

As a lawyer, and as a person living with a serious chronic condition for over 20 years, I see my role as complementary to my colleague Yannis Natsis, who is from a public health background, and whose focus is very much on access.

I cannot deny the ambition I feel in this position. The European Medicines Agency helped the U.S Federal Drugs Administration to embed patient engagement in its work – the impact has been great, and we now see the degree to which patients have been involved in the development of a drug as an assessment criterion. This has not yet been formalised here in Europe- but it is clearly a path to follow”.

For more info, visit the EMA Management Board webpage.