Christian Schneider, an executive with the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) in Langen, Germany, has been elected chair of the European Medicines Agency’s new Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT). Dr Schneider is a physician by training, specialising in immunology and rheumatology. He is currently head of division for European Union affairs and microbiology at the PEI.
Established under new European legislation, the CAT will assess the quality, safety and efficacy of advanced therapy medicinal products which include gene and stem cell therapies and tissue engineered products.
The vice chair of the new committee is Anneli Salmikangas, a senior researcher at the National Agency for Medicines in Finland. Dr Salmikangas is a biochemist and responsible for assessing marketing authorisation applications for biological medicinal products. She is also associate professor in biochemistry at the University of Helsinki.
Both chair and vice chair will serve a three-year term that started on 12 February 2009.
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