Chairman Jan Raaijmakers received royal honor: Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau
Jan Raaijmakers (64) has received the royal honour of being named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. In his previous work at the pharmaceutical firm GSK, his current position as a professor at Utrecht University, and the many board memberships and administrative posts he has filled on a voluntary basis, Raaijmakers has a long history of service to society. His promotion of public-private partnerships in particular has made a major contribution to pharmaceutical innovation in the Netherlands and abroad.
After a career at GSK, Raaijmakers was appointed as a professor at Utrecht University in 2008. His network and influence in the field of pharmaceutical innovation has earned him widespread acclaim, and resulted in Minister Kamp of Economic Affairs naming him the figurehead for the top sector Life Sciences & Health in March 2015. Raaijmakers’ limitless energy and his jovial way of communicating are infectious for his surroundings, and over the years these traits have inspired and motivated many people, including his students, to work to advance the pharmaceutical sector and the cooperative efforts within the sector.
Jan Raaijmakers
Jan Raaijmakers (1952) began his career as an analyst at the Lung Diseases group in Utrecht, while completing his studies in the evening and eventually earning his PhD in biology and pharmacology at Utrecht University in 1987. In 1988 he began working for GSK, one of the world’s largest innovative pharmaceutical companies. After filling the posts of Medical Director, Director of Science and Business Development and Commercial Director, from 2009 to 2014 he worked as Vice President External Scientific Collaborations Europe. In that role, he was responsible for creating partnerships with a wide range of institutions in the field of pharmaceutical research.
Education and research
In addition to his work at GSK, from 1998 to 2008 he was Endowed Professor of Technology Assessment for Pharmaceuticals at Utrecht University’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He has been a part-time Professor since 2008. At Utrecht University, Raaijmakers built a very successful research group, and he also acts as an advisor for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
He is also known as an especially inspiring lecturer, both for Utrecht’s Pharmaceutical Sciences students and for international students in the e-learning Master’s programme Eu2P. Eu2P (European programme in Pharmacovigilance and Pharmacoepidemiology) is an educational programme organised by seven European universities and 15 pharmaceutical companies. Raaijmakers provides education within the programme, but he is also involved in the programme’s development and a member of the examinations committee.
Top Institute Pharma
From 2009 to 2015, Raaijmakers played a vital role as an administrator of the Top Institute Pharma, which promotes international public-private partnerships for the research and development of socially valuable medications. Both in his work and due to his unique personality, he was able to bring parties together and convince them that the common good was in their individual interests. He fought tirelessly for public-private partnerships in the Netherlands and abroad, resulting in several successful projects and the merger of the institute with the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine.
UCAB
Since 2014, Raaijmakers has been involved in the creation of the Utrecht Centre of Excellence for Affordable Biotherapeutics for Public Health (UCAB), a collaboration between Utrecht University and the World Health Organization (WHO). UCAB is a non-profit organisation that strives to make the development and distribution of affordable high-quality biotherapeutics in poorer countries more sustainable. As Secretary of the foundation, Raaijmakers is primarily involved in the business aspects of local production of biosimilars in developing countries.
Efforts
The list of ways that Raaijmakers works to promote research in general, and pharmaceutical sciences in particular, is almost endless. For example, he is the chairperson of the ZonMW Enabling Technologies work group, which focuses on making high-quality technologies and infrastructures available for life sciences research. He is also a member of the ZonMW Goed Gebruik Geneesmiddelen (Proper Use of Pharmaceuticals, GGG) programme committee, which works to make existing medications more effective, efficient and safer. He is also the scientific board member for the Matwin project, a platform for discussing and accelerating research projects in the very early phases of development of new oncological medications.
Bron: Universiteit Utrecht
