Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse appointed Professor of Pharmacy and Global Health

The Executive Board has appointed Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse to the post of Professor of Pharmacy and Global Health at the Faculty of Science as of 1 February. Prof. Mantel-Teeuwisse will focus her research on the effects of policy measures on access to and use of medicines. Billions of people around the world today do not have adequate access to medicines; not just in low and middle income countries, but increasingly in high income countries as well, for example due to the high prices of medicines.

With the creation of this new chair in the Life Sciences, Utrecht University aims to realise its goal of improving health care around the world. The research and education provided by Prof. Mantel-Teeuwisse is vital in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals formulated by the United Nations. She already works closely together with national and international institutes, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

Positive and negative effects of policy choices

Access to and use of medicines is highly determined by regulatory, pricing, reimbursement and prescribing policies implemented by governments and pharmaceutical and medical advisory bodies. There are also significant differences from country to country, Prof. Mantel-Teeuwisse explains. “By studying those differences, we can gain a better understanding into the intended and unintended effects of different policy choices. This is essential in order to design better health care systems.”

International context increasingly important

For students of Pharmacy and other Life Sciences, insight into the international context of care is increasingly important. “As professionals, they will work on more and more complex forms of pharmaceutical care in an increasingly international profession. The current debate on expensive medicines, for example, shows that solutions should be sought both inside the Netherlands and in international collaboration.”

Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse

Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse (1973) studied and earned her PhD at Utrecht University’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She continued to work at the department as an Assistant Professor , and was appointed Associate Professor in 2016. Since 2014 she has also served as the Director of the School of Pharmacy. Furthermore she is the Managing Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation.