Next up for EMA head Emer Cooke: pharma legislation

Emer Cooke took on the role of leading EMA on Nov. 16, 2020, a week after data from BioNTech/Pfizer provided the first hope that society would be able to defend itself against SARS-CoV-2. She steered the agency through the crisis, collaborated closely with regulators around the globe and played a major role in shaping Europe’s, and the world’s, response to the pandemic.

Given the scale of the catastrophe and the remarkable ways the biopharmaceutical industry and regulators collaborated to tame the virus, the significance of Cooke’s leadership of the European Medicines Agency during this period should be obvious. Pandemic amnesia has, however, dulled memories, causing many to forget that faced with immense challenges, Cooke and her colleagues at regulatory agencies around the world met the moment...