Rasi nominated to be EMA chief
pharmafile | June 10, 2011 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | EMA, Guido Rasi, Thomas Lönngren
The European Medicines Agency has nominated Italy’s Guido Rasi to be its next head, after a protracted and messy search.
Mr Rasi is currently head of AIFA, the Italian medicines agency, and has been a member of the EMA board since last year.
Mr Rasi has been nominated by his fellow EMA board members, but the appointment must first be approved by the European Parliament.
The appointment process has been beset by errors and controversy, and is just one of the issues at the agency which has attracted serious criticism from the European Parliament.
Thomas Lönngren stepped down in December 2010 after ten years as executive director at the agency, but mistakes made in the advertising of the post meant the appointment had to be delayed.
Advertisements for the post were published in numerous EU languages, and some translations stipulated applicants needed to be “physicists” rather than “physicians”, while the post’s salary was also erroneously listed as lower than actual.
The mix up meant the EMA’s head of administration Andreas Pott has stood in as interim head since January. During that time, criticism has been mounting about Thomas Lönngren taking up a job with a pharma consultancy NDA directly after leaving the agency.
The front runner to succeed Lönngren was Pat O’Mahony, current head of the Irish Medicines Board, and also current chairman of the EMA board.
But when it emerged that O’Mahony had personally approved Lönngren’s move to NDA, and had raised no concerns about conflict of interest, doubts about his own judgement became an issue.
Guido Rasi has now been nominated by the board, and will now go before the European Parliament Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on 13 July. If the parliamentary committee approves Mr Rasi, his appointment will then be confirmed.
News of the nomination was accompanied by the EMA publishing Mr Rasi’s declaration interests, which produced no signs of conflicts of interest. Mr Rasi has however worked as a consultant for one US pharma company Scilcone CQ, in the 1995 – 2006 period in relation to its cancer and chronic infection drug Thymosin 21.
Rasi is a qualified doctor and surgeon, having specialised in internal medicine, allergology and clinical immunology. He has worked as physician in hospital, research and private practice and led research into molecular medicines at the Institute for Experimental Medicine of the National Research Council in Rome from 1990 to 2008.
Andrew McConaghie
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