The winners of the 2020 TOPRA Awards for Regulatory Excellence were announced on 19 November at an online ceremony. Now in their 11th year, these prestigious Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals, teams and organisations in the wider healthcare regulatory affairs community.
The 2020 winners are:
- COMMUNICATION: Monir El Azzouzi for The Medical Device made Easy Podcast, CEO, Easy Medical Device GmbH, Switzerland
- CONTRIBUTION: Jane Howard-Jones, Senior Director International RA, Gilead Sciences, UK
- EDUCATION: Faster Filing Knowledge Cycling team*, led by Detlef Hold, Maxine Warren, Lincoln Shand, Therese Mainville, Roche/Genentech, Switzerland and USA HORIZON: Tobias Fleischmann, Principal Regulatory Affairs Specialist, PPD, Germany
- INNOVATION: Regulatory Process Automation Factory, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland
- INSPIRATION: Angela Stokes, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs Services, Synteract, UK
- SUPPORT: The WAYS Pharmaceutical Services Team, led by Allison Steffen, USA
This year’s recipient of the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Award was Raj Long, Deputy Director, Integrated Development, Regulatory Affairs, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UK. Raj is recognised for her international career, which has spanned over 20 years in drug development and accelerating patient access to quality medical interventions. Having held regulatory leadership positions with Bristol-Myers Squibb in Asia Pacific, Novartis in Switzerland and GE Healthcare in the UK, she joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2014. Her work with regulators and policy makers in both the private and public sectors gives her unique strategic expertise. She is the global lead for safety systems strengthening, including being regulatory lead for ASEAN and India. She is also the lead for creation of a novel gene drive regulatory pathway for malaria vector control in partnership with the African Union Development Agency.
On a sadder note this year, the first-ever posthumous award for LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT was given. It celebrates the memory of Sue Harris, who was a well-known figure within the regulatory community, having worked at the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for 30 years, a module leader on the TOPRA MSc Regulatory Affairs and mentor to many regulatory professionals over the years. In addition she was a member of the group responsible for developing and implementing the Early Access to Medicines Scheme in the UK; one of the UK Experts for the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use; and the UK’s alternate delegate to the Herbal Medicinal Products Committee (HMPC) at the European Medicines Agency.
The Awards for Regulatory Excellence would not be able to take place without its sponsors. This year TOPRA thanks BlueReg, which supported the INNOVATION category; and general Champions of the Awards, PharmiWeb and F. Hoffman-La Roche.
A recording of the online Awards Ceremony is available at TOPRA's YouTube channel.