Emer Cooke leads the European Medicines Agency (EMA), headquartered in Amsterdam. Originally from Ireland, she has a background in pharmacy and has served as EMA's Executive Director since November 2020.
At NOMA, she presented the responsibilities and work of EMA, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. She highlighted EMA's mission to bring together expertise to improve public health in Europe.
- We live in challenging times and are focused on sustainability. Access to effective and safe medicines will be crucial in the years ahead. This is clearly reflected in the work we are doing on the new pharmaceutical legislation and the revised strategy we have just published," Emer Cooke said to NOMA employees today.
EMA gathers European expertise and has many associated working groups, including seven scientific committees, in which Norway participates.
The European collaboration encompassed almost everything
- This is an important visit for us. European collaboration is becoming increasingly important as we work to fulfil our societal mission. This is particularly true for us in Norway, as a small country. The European collaboration – with EMA as its hub - encompasses almost everything we do," said NOMA’s Director General, Trygve Ottersen as he welcomed Emer Cooke to the NOMA headquarters.
He added that both NOMA and EMA have recently had their mandates expanded in crisis preparedness and prevention of shortages, further strengthening their connection.
NOMA contributes with expert knowledge to the European collaboration, including assessing the efficacy, safety, and quality of new medicines before they are granted marketing authorization. Cooke emphasized the importance of NOMA's contribution to the European collaboration:
- Your contribution to the European collaboration is significant, especially considering how small your country is. I often forget that you are not a full EU member like most others in the collaboration," she said.
At NOMA, she engaged in dialogue with NOMA employees, met with the Strategic Board of Director, and participated in a seminar with several international guests, honouring NOMA’s former Director General, Audun Hågå. Cooke's colleague Michael Berntgen from EMA also contributed to the seminar, alongside Richard Bergström from IQVIA and Johan Pontén from TLV in Sweden.
Here you can read EMA's new strategy
EMA’s Executive Director, Emer Cooke, was welcomed by NOMAs director-general Trygve Ottersen