The European Medicines Agency (EMA)’s Patients' and Consumers' Working Party (PCWP) has re-elected Kaisa Immonen of the European Patients' Forum (EPF) as co-chair. Ms Immonen will co-chair the PCWP meetings together with Juan Garcia Burgos, Head of Public Engagement at EMA, for the next three years. The vote took place during the PCWP meeting on 24 September 2019.
Kaisa Immonen has extensive experience in European Union health policy and serves currently as Director of Policy at the EPF. Accepting the re-election for her second mandate, Ms Immonen said “The PCWP plays a vital role in supporting the Agency in its efforts, as well as acting as a watchdog to ensure that patient engagement is taken as a strategic priority. It will need careful planning and facilitation to ensure the PCWP continues to fulfil its role as a platform for exchange and discussion in the next three years, but also goes beyond it to keep advancing patients’ and consumers’ meaningful engagement in the work of EMA.”
The PCWP is a pillar of the EMA’s ever-increasing engagement with civil society. It provides recommendations to EMA and its scientific committees on all matters of interest to patients and consumers in relation to medicines.
Jean Georges, Executive Director of Alzheimer Europe attended the PCWP meeting. He expresses his, and Alzheimer Europe’s congratulations to Ms Immonen on her re-election.
The 2019-2022 work plan that will guide the work of both parties has also been endorsed by EMA’s scientific committees during their meetings in September 2019 and is now available.
