Dr Petra Doerr is the 3rd successive female Director, embodying a long tradition of strong female leaders at the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM). Doerr upholds the vision of ensuring public health protection for the benefit of patients and consumers. This requires consolidating the EDQM’s considerable achievements over its 60-year history, building upon its strengths and seizing the opportunities for enhanced collaboration between the EDQM and its stakeholders.
Many aspects of the EDQM’s present were already in the germ 30 years ago, when Dr Agnès Artiges became the first female Director of the European Pharmacopoeia Secretariat, predecessor of the EDQM. She ushered in a series of reforms and innovations that, taken together, resulted in a rapid expansion in activities whose effects are still resonating in Europe and beyond. Her successor starting in 2007, Dr Susanne Keitel, continued efforts to expand co-operation and make the EDQM’s positive impact felt on an increasing scale. This drove membership up to 39 members by the end of her mandate.
Under Dr Doerr’s leadership, a new strategic framework has been developed and measures to optimise the organisational structure have been defined. This should enable the EDQM to stay ahead in a dynamic environment. With a revisited vision, mission and strategic plan, she now aims to develop the EDQM’s competent and dedicated staff, modernise and expand its infrastructure and open an era of sustainable development and better health for all.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
