Meet Confirmed Speakers from the European Medicines Agency
DIA Europe 2025 is the only event where you can hear from nearly all top executives at the European Medicines Agency
We are honored to have them partner so closely with us, especially at such a momentous period for Europe. Learn more below about these leaders of today.
Ana Zanoletty, Head of Clinical Trials Transformation Workstream
Ana qualified as a pharmacist and following various roles managing clinical trials for the biopharmaceutical industry joined EMA in 2006. At EMA she spent her initial years coordinating initial marketing authorisation procedures, and later transitioned into the management of post-authorisation procedures. Ana has been Programme Manager for the Accelerating Clinical Trials in the EU (ACT EU), a European clinical trials transformation initiative which is co-lead by EC, HMA and EMA, and is currently the Head of the Clinical Trials Transformation workstream at EMA.
Caroline Pothet, Scientific Administrator, Regulatory Affairs
Caroline Pothet is head of the office for advanced therapies and haematological diseases at the European Medicines Agency. Caroline joined EMA in 2020; prior to this, Caroline worked in the Industry for 20 years in a variety of sectors such as regulatory policy, regulatory science and drug development, including 10 years in oncology; During these years, Caroline was privileged to be involved in the development and registration of several drugs (e.g. cervical cancer, melanoma, T-ALL/LBL). Caroline is also a member of the Regulatory Scientific Committee in the International Rare Disease Research Consortium.
Evdokia Korakianiti, Head of Quality and Safety of Medicines
Head of Procedure Management department as of July 2014. Head of the Chemicals Section in the Quality of Medicines Sector till July 2014. She has been working for the Agency for 11 years and she is heavily involved with the EMA PAT Team activities. She is a pharmacist and has received a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Pharm. Technology from the School of Pharmacy in Athens
Falk Ehmann,
Chair of Innovation Task Force
Falk Ehmann is a medical doctor with a PhD in Experimental Medicine and expertise in European and International law. He is currently chairing the EMA’s Innovation Task Force (ITF). His main areas of expertise include Pharmacogenomics, Nanomedicines and Borderline and Combined Medicinal Products and other -omics especially in connection with Personalized Medicine. Falk worked for the EMA since 2004 including manager of Scientific Advice teams and working as Product Team Leader in the Oncology and Anti-Invectives therapeutic areas.
Francesca Cerreta,
Principal Scientific Officer
After working for Lilly and Merck, Francesca Cerreta joined the EMA in 1996. There, she has set up the parallel scientific advice programme with FDA, worked in CNS and Scientific Advice, and coordinated the PRIME scheme, the digital therapeutic matrix, and the geriatric medicines strategy activities.
Juan Garcia-Burgos,
Head of Public and Stakeholders Engagement
Juan García Burgos is a Qualified Medical Doctor from Autonoma University in Madrid, specialised in urology. Juan worked as a urologist surgeon at the Maranon hospital in Madrid. He joined the European Medicines Agency in 2002 and was responsible for coordinating the preparation of EU clinical guidelines for drug development. In 2005 he was appointed Head of Medical and Health Information, being directly involved in the interaction with Patients, Consumers and Healthcare Professionals' Organisations and the preparation of information on benefit-risk of medicines for lay audiences. In 2017, he was appointed Head of Public and Stakeholders Engagement Department and is Co-chair of the EMA patients’ and healthcare professionals’ working party.
Melanie Carr,
Head of Stakeholders and Communication Division
Melanie Carr is Head of the Stakeholders and Communication Division and a member of the Executive Board at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). She joined EMA in 1996 and has held various roles in pharmacovigilance, the centralised procedure for marketing authorisation, orphan medicines, the SME office and corporate stakeholders department. In her current role she is responsible for stakeholder relations management and communication. She has a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Nottingham in the UK and worked as a regulatory professional in the pharmaceutical industry prior to joining EMA.
Patrice Verpillat, Head of Real World Evidence
He is a medical doctor, specialist in epidemiology. He has worked during 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry where he had positions in several international companies, always dealing with real world data (RWD) and non-interventional studies (NIS) in order to bring RWE into research, access and life-cycle product management.
Dr. Verpillat has published over 70 articles in Medline referenced journals. He has been involved in many organisations such as ENCePP, ICH M14 working group, European pharma association (efpia) and ISPE.
Sabine Haubenreisser,
Principal Scientific Administrator, Stakeholders and Communication Division
Sabine Haubenreisser is a pharmacologist with special interest in scientific cooperation and regulatory convergence to the benefit of public health, through engagement with external stakeholders, the European network of experts and international partners and regulators. She has held positions at EMA in scientific divisions, international affairs and (currently) stakeholder engagement. She served 5 years as EMA Liaison Official at the US FDA, where she facilitated cooperation between the European Regulatory Network and the FDA. During this time, she oversaw completion of the EU/US Mutual Recognition Agreement on GMP inspections and development of new platforms for cooperation such as on patient engagement, rare diseases and pharmacometrics.
Steffen Thirstrup, Chief Medical Officer
Steffen Thirstrup is a medical doctor and board certified specialist in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. He holds a PhD in pharmacology and has a long background in clinical internal medicine. He is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. From 2004-9 ST worked at the Danish Medicines Agency acting as member of CHMP and additionally CAT at the European Medicines Agency. Following a short period involved in developing best practice guidelines for primary care ST rejoined the DKMA as Head of the Licensing. From 2013-22, Prof Thirstrup worked asdirector and strategic consultant for NDA Group AB.
From June 2022 Prof Thistrup is the Chief Medical Officer of the European Medicines Agency.
Veronika Jekerle, Head of Pharmaceutical Quality
Veronika Jekerle joined the European Medicines Agency in 2006 as a Product Team Leader for Recombinant proteins, Vaccines, ATMPs and Biosimilar applications. She held various positions including Quality Specialist and Scientific secretary for the Biologics working party and coordinated numerous guidelines in the area of Biologicals, ATMPs and vaccines as well as initiatives such as interested parties meetings, PRIME toolbox guidance and prior knowledge. Since 2020 she is Head of Office for EMA’s Pharmaceutical Quality Office in the Human medicines Division.
Zaide Frias, Head of Digital Business Transformation Task Force
Zaïde Frias has degrees in Pharmacy and Business Administration. Prior to joining the European Medicines Agency she worked in Pharmaceutical Industry. She joined the EMA in 1999; she was appointed Head of Human Medicines Research & Development Support Division in 2013 and Head of Head of Human Medicines Evaluation Division in 2016. In 2020, she took the position of Head of Digital Business Transformation Task Force. The Digital Business Transformation Task Force was created to drive complex, disruptive change initiatives that have a profound impact on the strategy of EMA, its operational structure and operation in relation to the EU medicines regulatory network, its partners and stakeholders.