Ruth Lopert, BSc BMed (MD), MMedSc, FAFPHM

Ruth Lopert, a public health physician and pharmacoepidemiologist/pharmacoeconomist, is currently Deputy Director, Pharmaceutical Policy & Strategy, in the Pharmaceuticals & Health Technologies Group at Management Sciences for Health in Arlington VA. She also holds an adjunct professorial appointment in the Department of Health Policy & Management at George Washington University, where she was Visiting Professor in 2011-12 and a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy in 2006-07. From 2008-11 Ruth was the chief medical officer in the FDA’s Australian counterpart agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Previously she established and directed the pharmaceutical policy unit in the Australian Department of Health; prior to that Ruth managed the day-to-day operations of the national drug benefit program, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and was a clinical and policy advisor to the national formulary committee. In 2003-04 Ruth was also primary negotiator on pharmaceuticals during the Australia US Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Ruth is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, was recently appointed to membership of l’Academie Nationale de Pharmacie of France, and is a former member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Policies and Management. Over the last 5 years she has also worked as an external consultant to WHO, the World Bank, PAHO and NICE-International, mainly in former Soviet bloc countries. Her research interests include medicine and therapeutics regulation; pharmaceutical policy and pricing; health technology assessment (HTA); pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP); and issues at the intersections of trade, IP and access to medicines.