The Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), the US-based organisation working towards a global clinical-research network based on standardisation, accreditation and a common information-technology platform, has formed a strategic alliance with the PharmaTrain Federation.
With an executive office in Basel, Switzerland, PharmaTrain is an international not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the education and training of professionals in medicines development.
The goal of the ACRES-PharmaTrain alliance is to promote the adoption of “new and reliable” global standards for high-quality postgraduate education in drug discovery, development, regulation and marketing.
The partners aim to establish and implement a systems approach to “addressing the many challenges currently facing the global drug development and health-related research endeavour”, they said.
Proposed joint projects include developing and disseminating curriculum standards for educational programmes in these areas, as well as implementing a global quality assessment and recognition process for educational programmes and training courses.
Learning outcomes
Since inception, PharmaTrain has defined 180 content topics in its comprehensive Syllabus of Medicines Development and mapped these topics to 60 critical learning outcomes, aligned to the core competencies for scientists involved in medicines development, noted Dr. Greg Koski, president and chief executive officer of ACRES.
This “rigorous approach” to standards-based education and training “has been missing in preparing professionals in medicines development”, Koski commented.
“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.”
IMI origins
As its founder Fritz Bühler, Professor of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Basel and former head of Global Clinical Research and Development at Roche, pointed out, PharmaTrain started out as an education and training project within the European Union’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).
The organisation “is now ready to undertake the next step for globalisation”, Bühler added.
