On 20th June 2022 ECPM celebrated, with a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its 30th anniversary with a seminar that highlighted learnings and challenges in medicines development, followed by a look back on the highlights in the past 30 years of ECPM.
In the morning, renowned speakers such as Dario Neri (CEO of Philogen and Professor at ETH, Zurich), Peter Jüni (Physician at St Michaels Hospital Toronto and Professor in Epidemiology), Sebastian Schneeweiss (Professor at Harvard Medical School), Chandra P. Leo (Physician and Partner at the investment company HBM) and Dieter Scholer (former member of the University Council Basel and life science expert) highlighted the industry academia collaboration and endorsement.
Several of the founding and the current board members of ECPM were present and summarized the milestones and achievements. Thomas Szucs, the current director of ECPM, presented the highlights of the ECPM’s DNA (please see history of ECPM). Carl Peck and Robert O’Neill, formerly with the FDA and co-founder of ECPM, provided very personal messages. The achievements and persistence of the ECPM founder Prof Fritz Bühler who died in 2017 were acknowledged.
The former course and managing director Ruth Amstein and the current course and managing director Annette Mollet presented the development of ECPM from a small associated institute to a full university institute of the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel.
There were contributions from the two sister courses, established in the wake of ECPM, namely from ACDRS (3) in the States, and CCDRS in China (4), which sent a very inspiring video with a Happy Birthday message.
A number of distinguished representatives from the Pharmaceutical Industry (Severin Schwan, CEO of F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Lutz Hegemann, Board Member of Novartis), the Regulatory Authority (Claus Bolte from Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products) , the University of Basel (President Andrea Schenker-Wicki) and the Swiss Government (Councillors of the Canton Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land, Lukas Engelberger and Thomas Weber) attended in person, whereas the President of the Swiss Confederation, Ignazio Cassis, sent an appreciative video message.
There was a panel of experts and alumni elaborating on “How to Develop Talents and Competencies”, which was very informative and entertaining. The discussions highlighted the content, which can be acquired in training programmes, and which parts will be learned on the job.
The evening ceremony started with a very memorable and delightful event, a classic Jubilee Concert, of the Academic Orchestra Basel conducted by ECPM’s Director Professor Thomas Szucs followed by dinner and networking of the current course participants, speakers and guests, members from the ECPM advisory board, and the teaching faculty.
Download Brochure «ECPM 30 years Jubilee Seminar»
Download Brochure «Jubilee Concert 30-Years ECPM»
(1) IMI: Innovative Medicine Initiative: www.imi.europa.eu
(2) PharmaTrain: PharmaTrain Federation: www.pharmatrain.eu
(3) ACDRS: American Course on Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences: https://pharm.ucsf.edu/acdrs
(4) CCDRS: Chinese Course of Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences: http://pucri.bjmu.edu.cn/en/basic-122-123.html
