Singapore: The Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) elected Dr June Raine from the UK as its chair and Dr Almath Spooner from Ireland as its vice chairman during its second meeting from September 3-5, 2012. Both mandates are for a three-year period.

"The PRAC is set to play a pivotal role in delivering the public health benefits of the new European pharmacovigilance legislation," said Dr Raine on accepting her election. "My ambition is to make sure that this unique opportunity to strengthen public health protection is fully realized for the benefit of all citizens in the European Union. The new legislation provides powerful tools to strengthen the protection of public health in Europe and the effective use of these tools will depend on clarity of vision, strong leadership, sound scientific judgement and excellent communication by the PRAC."

Over the course of her career, Dr Raine has made outstanding contributions towards delivering a world-class EU pharmacovigilance system. Together, she and Dr Spooner bring a wealth of experience in medicine, pharmacy, regulation of medicines and public health protection through pharmaco-vigilance and risk management of medicines to their new roles.