The USC School of Pharmacy has received a gift from Quintiles to establish the Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical and Regulatory Innovation and the Quintiles International Lecture Series, both to be housed at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC.

“The Quintiles Chair will allow USC to recruit a world-class faculty expert with the interdisciplinary knowledge of both health economics and regulatory policy,” said USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “As USC builds collaborations between these two vital areas, the Quintiles gift will advance the university’s research and scholarship in ways that will significantly shape the future of health care.”

The Schaeffer Center, a collaboration between the USC School of Pharmacy and the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, offers an ideal home for the Quintiles Chair. Recognized as one of the nation’s premier centers for innovative, independent research contributing to health policy development, the center aims to promote health and value in health care through rigorous research and analysis.

Dennis Gillings, founder and chairman of Quintiles, said: “The Quintiles Chair and International Lecture Series have the potential to drive true innovation and create exciting new dialogue in global health. I’m delighted that we are able to support the Schaeffer Center and USC School of Pharmacy in this worthwhile endeavor.”

In the last decade, the regulatory environment for biopharmaceutical products has shifted as a global marketplace has emerged. The gift provides an opportunity to look at potential efficiencies that facilitate the arrival of products to market in a cost-effective way while ensuring safety.

The USC School of Pharmacy houses the International Center for Regulatory Science, offering the world’s only professional doctorate in the discipline as well as a master’s degree. The program is directed by USC School of Pharmacy professor Frances Richmond, who will work with the eventual holder of the Quintiles Chair along with other faculty and students in the program in addition to those at the Schaeffer Center.

“This is a gift that will allow USC to take two disciplines in which we are currently leaders – health economic policy and regulatory science – and meld the thinking to come up with real-world solutions to today’s challenges,” said USC School of Pharmacy dean R. Pete Vanderveen. “This will be further enhanced through the lecture series.”

The Quintiles International Lecture Series will be directed by Dana Goldman, director of the Schaeffer Center. The series provides a high-level international forum addressing pharmaceutical economics policy and regulatory issues. The intent of the series is to provide an open dialogue among international leaders who will work together to form new methodologies that streamline the regulatory process and accelerate innovation.

“The Quintiles gift puts the Schaeffer Center at the forefront in understanding the long-term consequences of regulatory reform, both in the United States and abroad,” noted Goldman, who holds the Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at USC.

The series will launch in Beijing, China, in June 2012 with a two-day conference on pharmaceutical regulation and innovation. The first day of the conference will focus on policy, followed by a day on research. Co-sponsor of the conference is Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management.

A comprehensive search for the Quintiles Chair currently is under way.

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