EPF representative elected as new co-chair of Patients’ and Consumers’ Working Party

EPF Director of Policy, Kaisa Immonen, has been elected as new co-chair of the The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Patients’ and Consumers’ Working Party (PCWP).

Ms Immonen – who has been an alternate member to Susanna Palkonen of the PCWP since 2010 – will co-chair the PCWP for the next three years, together with Isabelle Moulon, Head of the Public Engagement Department at EMA. She will replace David Haerry of the European AIDS Treatment Group, whose mandate has come to an end.

“The PCWP in its ten years of existence has been a catalyst for a profound culture change at EMA and to some extent at national agencies. Our challenge now is to take the involvement of patients and consumers in the Agency’s work even further,” says Kaisa Immonen.

EPF has been represented in the PCWP since 2008. Our active participation in the group means having the opportunity to get involved directly in the work of the EMA on information for patients on medicines, pharmacovigilance, medication safety and implementation of the EU clinical trials Regulation, among other things. We also act as conduit of information towards our patient communities across the EU, and through these networks encourage new interested patient representatives and organisations to become involved in the Agency’s work.

About the PCWP

The PCWP is a unique platform for exchange and dialogue with patients and consumers’ organisations on all issues related to medicines. Its main role is to provide recommendations to EMA and its scientific committees on all matters of interest to patients and consumers, as well as to monitor interactions between the Agency and patients and consumers.

To know more about the PCWP, visit its website.