Cambridge, Massachusetts (PRWEB) September 30, 2013 -- The Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES) and PharmaTrain Federation, an international not-for-profit organisation for improving education and training of professionals in medicines development, today announced their creation of a Strategic Alliance to promote the adoption of new and reliable global standards for high-quality postgraduate education and training for individuals pursuing careers in the process of discovery, development, regulation and marketing of new medicines.
According to Dr. Greg Koski, President of ACRES and Dr. Ingrid Klingmann, Coordinator of PharmaTrain, the goal of the partnership is to develop and implement a systems approach to addressing the many challenges currently facing the global drug development and health-related research endeavor. Proposed projects include the development and dissemination of curriculum standards for educational programs and the implementation of a global quality assessment and recognition process for educational programmes and training courses as part of the shared infrastructure necessary for the multi-stakeholder integration of education in medicines development.
"There is nothing comparable to PharmaTrain," noted ACRES President and CEO, Dr. Greg Koski. "Since its inception, PharmaTrain has defined 180 content topics in its comprehensive Syllabus of Medicines Development and mapped them to 60 critical learning outcomes, which are aligned with the core competencies for scientists involved in medicines development. This rigorous approach to standards-based education and training has been missing in preparing professionals in medicines development. Our strategic alliance with PharmaTrain will facilitate the adoption and implementation of these standards worldwide with significant beneficial impact for the industry and for patients."
"PharmaTrain emerged as an education and training project within the
European Innovative Medicines Initiative --it is now ready to undertake the next step for globalisation," said PharmaTrain’s founding father, Fritz Bühler, Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Basel and former Head of Global Clinical Research and Development at Roche.
"To train a new generation of professionals in medicines development, a rigorous standardized but flexible curriculum is essential," said Dr. Ingrid Klingmann, who in addition to her leadership role at PharmaTrain is also Chairman of the Board of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP). "Currently over 30 leading universities in Europe and North America have implemented the PharmaTrain curriculum-- with ACRES, our new strategic partner, we intend to offer PharmaTrain to the world."
Dr. Honorio Silva, ACRES Vice-President for System Integration and Professionalism, a long time proponent of outcome-based education for both academia and pharmaceuticals added, "This alliance is a major step toward achieving true professionalism in medicines development and clinical research. The strategic alliance between PharmaTrain and ACRES will catalyze the education and training of competent professionals according to uniform standards worldwide."
ACRES, a global non-profit organization working in the public interest and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is building a comprehensive, sustainable and shareable system for clinical research worldwide. By bringing together experts, stakeholders, and like-minded organizations, ACRES’s goal is to collaboratively create and implement systems solutions that enhance safety, data quality and integrity, and operational excellence in an efficient and cost effective manner to improve the health and lives of people everywhere.
PharmaTrain Federation is the successor organization of the PharmaTrain project, which was developed within the European Innovative Medicines Initiative, a collaboration between the European Commission and European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) companies and the largest ever public-private partnership in biomedicine. PharmaTrain standardises and grows job-defined and competence-based training products in medicines development from a nucleus of 45 accredited University Centres of Excellence around the world in partnership with universities, pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies and standard setting societies.
Dr. Mary F. Tobin, Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), http://www.acresglobal.net, +1 410-987-5509, [email protected]
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