Merck, the science and technology company, rewards CEU students' research

The science and technology company Merck has awarded the Merck Chair Award to the best works of the Master's Degree in Management of Biotechnology Companies in Health; an official master's degree that also has the co-direction of the Spanish Association of Biocompanies (ASEBIO).

The jury, composed of Mª del Pilar Ramos Álvarez, Director of the Master and the Merck Chair; Elisa Díaz Martínez, Director of Public Affairs and Policy at Merck in Spain; Ion Arocena Vélez, Director General of ASEBIO; María Haro García, coordinator of the Master; Peter Klatt Brückl, scientific researcher at CSIC and advisor to the General Secretariat for Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation; and the researcher and consultant in biotechnology and innovation, Guillermo de la Cueva Méndez, awarded the first prize ex aequo for their Master's Thesis to Patricia Calle Meier, for her work 'Value-added projects of pharmaceutical companies for CAR-T cell therapy'; and to Javier Poveda Baena, for his work 'Analysis of drug approval times in Europe and national access in Spain: Key factors in the innovation cycle of the pharmaceutical industry'.

Patricia Calle Meier suggested “a change in the paradigm of the healthcare system to improve the oncohematology patient experience. Value-added projects are a disruptive concept in pharmaceutical and biotech companies and capable of creating great results from a business and healthcare point of view. CAR-T cell therapy has also been a recent revolution in oncology”.

The innovative work, with an eye to the future, has motivated the student to want to “seek solutions to therapies that represent a significant improvement in the prognosis of cancer patients, but which are highly complex and costly in order to make them a more accessible reality”. She also wanted to say a few words of thanks to the CEU University and Merck, “for having grown exponentially during these two years of the Master's, both professionally and personally, both for the Chair and for the colleagues it has given me, who have taught me the meaning of the word ambition”.

Javier Poveda Baena, for his part, explained that his “work mainly addresses the current problems in Spain regarding access to innovative medicines, studying the rate of drugs authorised in Spain over the last six years compared to those authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the time that elapses from the time the drugs are approved in Europe until they become available to patients in Spain”.

As he explains, "the work highlights the growing need to mediate market entry times for medicines, ensuring that they are correctly dispensed to patients while protecting the viability of marketing companies by favouring a return on investment in terms of form and time. Furthermore, there is a clear need for the Spanish government to review current regulations in order to develop methodologies that reduce the time taken to evaluate and set the price of drugs".

The young student thanked the entire steering committee of the Merck Chair for the recognition of the effort made during this year. "It is very gratifying to see how leading companies in the sector, such as Merck, are committed to rewarding the talent of the new generations and promoting our growth," he said.

In the words of Elisa Díaz, “one of Merck's objectives is to promote research, the dissemination of knowledge and the training of the scientists of the future in order to promote changes that have a positive impact on people's well-being. For this reason, we are particularly pleased to award this recognition to the best projects presented in this edition, as they are a reflection of the value that the biotechnology industry contributes to the progress of our society”.