A declaration of intent to participate in the Cooperative European Medicines Development Course (CEMDC) has been signed by representatives of ten universities from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe.
The CEMDC’s organisation is connected to the European Union’s Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) programme, while the preparatory work was carried out within the Geographical Extension working group of the IMI-funded PharmaTrain (PhT) project. Following an assessment, the programme also received prioritised funding from the European Union.
The goal of the CEMDC is to develop an educational structure based on international and interuniversity cooperation which, using the advantages inherent in the nature of regional cooperation, can provide high quality, harmonised international education in countries where, owing to a small population and relatively minor pharmaceutical industry, the long-term operation of such a programme by a single university is unfeasible.
The IMI-PhT selected Dr. Sándor Kerpel-Fronius (professor, Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Semmelweis University) as the Academic Leader of the Geographical Extension sub-project, while Dr. Matthias Gottwald (Vice-President of Research Policy and Collaborations, Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals) was named Industrial Co-Leader. The coordination of the CEMDC has been entrusted upon Semmelweis University in cooperation with the Governing Board formed by the CEMDC partner universities.
Students taking part in the CEMDC training will be placed into a unified international group, taught by an equally diverse team of international instructors. Thanks to the programme’s international organisation and its connection with the PharmaTrain project, the CEMDC can guarantee favourable recognition of its diploma at the international level. The first Cooperative European Medicines Development Course is expected to start in the spring of 2013.
The ten initial universities participating in the CEMDC are: University of Tartu (Estonia), Semmelweis University (Hungary), Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Lithuania), Medical University of Warsaw (Poland), University of Lisbon (Portugal), University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Targu Mures (Romania), University of Belgrade (Serbia), Comenius University of Bratislava (Slovakia), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Gazi University (Turkey).
Szilvia Tóth-Szabó
Translated by Gina Varga-Gönczi
