Thomas Lönngren reappointed as Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency
Press releaseMedicines
Thomas Lönngren has been reappointed as Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency at today's meeting of the Agency's Management Board.
The Board decided unanimously to renew the mandate of Thomas Lönngren until December 2010, following a recommendation for his reappointment from the European Commission.
Thomas Lönngren was first appointed as Executive Director by the Board in October 2000, and began his first five-year mandate in January 2001.
After extending his thanks to the members of the Board, Thomas Lönngren said: “The new EU pharmaceutical legislation gives the EMEA a robust platform for the future. My priority will be to continue working on achieving the objectives set out in the Agency's long-term strategy, namely strengthening our work on ensuring the safety of medicines for human and veterinary use, promoting access to medicines and support to innovation, improving openness, communication and the provision of information, strengthening the European medicines network, and consolidating and monitoring the implementation of the revised pharmaceutical legislation.”
The two-day meeting of the Management Board concludes on 29 September, after which a further statement on its proceedings will be issued.
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1. Thomas Lönngren qualified as a pharmacist in 1976 and holds an MSc degree in social and regulatory pharmacy, from Uppsala University, Sweden. He was a lecturer at the university from 1976 to 1978, then served with the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, from 1978 to 1990, with responsibilities for herbal medicines, cosmetics, medical devices, narcotics and contraceptives. From 1984 to 1992, he acted as senior pharmaceutical consultant for the Swedish International Development Agency's health cooperation programme in Vietnam. In 1990, he was appointed Director of Operations of the Swedish Medical Products Agency, and later became its Deputy Director-General. He was elected Honorary Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 2003, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) in 2004.