
Advisory Boards
ETHICS ADVISORY BOARD (EAB)
Professor Pritchard studied Medicine at Manchester University (BSc (1st class Hons) in Medical Biochemistry, 1988; MB.ChB. (with Hons), 1991). After junior hospital posts (MRCP(UK) 1994), he returned to the University of Manchester to train in Gastroenterology and performed research on the genetic regulation of apoptosis in the GI tract (Digestive Disorders Foundation and MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowships leading to PhD, 1999). In 2000 he moved to the University of Liverpool as a clinical lecturer to complete clinical training in Gastroenterology. Following this he was awarded an Advanced Fellowship for Clinicians from the Wellcome Trust (2002-6) to study the importance of Helicobacter pylori-induced apoptosis during gastric tumour development. He was awarded the ASNEMGE Rising Star award in 2007 and the Sir Francis Avery Jones Research Medal of the British Society of Gastroenterology in 2008. He was appointed Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool in 2006, Professor in 2009, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology in 2010 and Head of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology in 2016.
His current research focuses upon host factors which influence the development of gastrointestinal cancers and neuroendocrine tumours, in particular the importance of apoptosis, NF-κB signalling and the gastrin family of peptides. He is also an honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, where he is the clinical lead of the Liverpool European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) Centre of Excellence and is involved in the clinical and endoscopic management of patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. He also currently chairs the Gastroduodenal Section committee of the British Society of Gastroenterology.
Susanne studied Veterinary Science at the Free University in Berlin. She is author of 26 articles mainly in journals within Immunology, Toxicology and Animal Welfare scope. She is member of the American Association of Laboratory Animals (AALAS), the European Society of Laboratory Animal Veterinarians (ESLAV), the German Society for Laboratory Animal Science (GV-Solas), the Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV), the European Primate Veterinarians (EPV), and International Primatological Society (IPS). Susanne represents AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co KG in the EFPIA RAW (Research & Animal Welfare) Group and Large Animal subgroup. She serves for AAALAC Int. as European Council Member; and is member of the Ethical Committee for Animal Research in Rhineland Palatinate and Tübingen of Germany.
After working as Clinical Veterinarian at the German Primate Center (Göttingen, Germany), in 2004 she joined Covance Laboratories GmbH (Münster, Germany) as Clinical Veterinarian and Animal Welfare Officer, Manager Lab Animal Care, and moved to other Covance sites (Vienna (VA, USA) and Chandler (AZ, USA)). From 2010 to 2012, she worked as Expert Animal Science and Welfare, Animal Welfare officer at Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). In 2012, she joined AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co KG (Ludwigshafen, Germany), first as Head of Comparative Medicine and currently, since 2014, she is the Head of Animal Welfare, Facility Budget & Technical Platforms.
Dr. Jan Willem van der Laan is senior assessor in Pharmacology and Toxicology for the Medicines Evaluation Board, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Since 1990 he has been in the Section Pharmacology and Toxicology Assessment at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, Bilthoven). In this function, he has been responsible for the advices on non-clinical safety aspects for the Netherlands ‘College’, the Medicines Evaluation Board.
He moved with this group in 2012 to the Medicines Evaluation Board located in Utrecht, and stepped aside as manager of the group in 2007. He is still senior assessor in this area. Dr. van der Laan is visiting staff member of the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research, Division Toxicology, where he is working on a project on in vitro carcinogenicity testing approaches focusing on the role of nuclear receptors.
He is chair of the EMA/CHMP Safety Working Party since 2012, with a renewed mandate in 2015. He is also member of the Nonclinical Working Group of the Pediatric Committee, giving advice about the need for juvenile safety studies.
His contributions to the International Conference on Harmonization started in 1992 on Carcinogenicity Testing. Later he was EU rapporteur for S8 Immunotoxicity and for ICH S6 (R1) Addendum for the Preclinical testing of Biotechnology-derived Proteins. In 2011, he became again a member of the ICH S1 Expert Working Group on Carcinogenicity testing and in 2015 also Regulatory Chair of the Expert Working Group on Juvenile Toxicity testing S11.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD (SAB)
Stephan Schmidt (BPharm, PhD, FCP) is an endowed Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida, where he also serves as the Director for the Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology. He received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, and his PhD in Pharmacy from the University of Florida in Gainesville, USA. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the Leiden-Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, he rejoined the University of Florida as faculty in 2012. Dr. Schmidt’s research focuses on chronic progressive diseases, special patient populations, and drug-drug interactions. He published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, 7 book chapters, and 2 textbooks, including the fifth edition of Rowland and Tozer’s Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics textbook. He received numerous awards including the University of Florida Excellence Award for Assistant Professors in 2013, the Tanabe Young Investigator Award from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP) in 2016, and the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Mentoring Award from UF’s College of Pharmacy in 2018. Dr. Schmidt serves as the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Precision Medicine of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), Subject Editor for the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Board of Regents member of ACCP.
Eric Sobie is Professor in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, and a PhD, also in Biomedical Engineering, from Johns Hopkins. His research focuses on obtaining new insight into cardiovascular disorders and potential treatments through a combination of physiological experiments and mechanistic mathematical modeling. Areas of particular interest include arrhythmia mechanisms and causes of drug-induced adverse events. In addition to directing a research laboratory, Dr. Sobie currently serves as Senior Associate Dean for Programmatic Development in the Graduate School and directs an NIH-funded training program in systems pharmacology.