FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg to Keynote Partnership for Safe Medicines Inaugural Counterfeit Drug Conference

Washington, D.C. (September 9, 2010) – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today announced that Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, will be the keynote speaker at its inaugural Interchange conference to be held October 8th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Speaker Lineup Includes Counterfeit Drug Victims, Journalists and
Law Enforcement Officials

Washington, D.C. (September 9, 2010) – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today announced that Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, will be the keynote speaker at its inaugural Interchange conference to be held October 8th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Hamburg brings a tremendous amount of experience and insight to this issue and we are thrilled to have her join us for this important discussion,” said Scott LaGanga, executive director of PSM. “It’s clear we have a near-term opportunity to advance meaningful solutions that address the counterfeit drug trade head on.”

Dr. Hamburg, who became the 21st FDA Commissioner on May 18, 2009, is only the second woman in history to serve in the position.

PSM also announced the addition of Dr. Michael Green, researcher at the Center for Disease Control, Division of Parasitic Diseases, and Bejon Misra, Founder of PSM India. Dr. Green’s areas of interest include anti malarial drug analysis for pharmacokinetic and drug quality studies and developing simple inexpensive field tests to assess drug quality of pharmaceuticals.

Other panelists announced today include John Gray, President and CEO of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, Rick Roberts, a counterfeit drug victim, Nancy Kennedy, senior operations manager for the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, pharmaceutical abuse investigator Charlie Cichon and journalist Walt Bogdanich from the New York Times will be panelists at the Interchange. Panels will be moderated by PSM Board Members Marv Shepherd, Bryan Liang and Thomas Kubic.

For more information, a current agenda and registration forms for the Interchange, please visit: http://interchange.safemedicines.org.