Meet Confirmed Speakers from the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
DIA Europe 2026 is the only event where you can hear from nearly all top executives at the EMA.
DIA Europe 2026 is a unique opportunity to hear directly from senior leaders and experts at the European Medicines Agency on topics shaping medicines regulation, clinical trials, and regulatory science in Europe.
At a pivotal time for healthcare and regulatory policy, EMA representatives will share insights into current priorities, emerging challenges, and the future of medicines development and oversight. Learn more about the EMA speakers participating in this year’s conference.
Emer Cooke,
Executive Director, EMA
Ms Cooke is Executive Director of the EMA and Chair of ICMRA. Starting her mandate as ED in June 2020 amid a public health crisis of unprecedented scale she announced “My number one priority will be to drive forward EMA’s response to the pandemic and the work already ongoing to support the development and approval of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.” Doing precisely that has since earned her various accolades including an Honorary Doctorate for outstanding contribution to healthcare (RCSI - 2023) and the ‘European of the Year 2022’ title by European Movement Ireland. Ms Cooke obtained a degree in pharmacy and master’s degrees in both Science and Business Administration from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Steffen Thirstrup, Chief Medical Officer, EMA
Steffen Thirstrup is a medical doctor and board certified specialist in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. He holds a PhD in pharmacology and has a long background in clinical internal medicine. He is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. From 2004-9 ST worked at the Danish Medicines Agency acting as member of CHMP and additionally CAT at the European Medicines Agency. Following a short period involved in developing best practice guidelines for primary care ST rejoined the DKMA as Head of the Licensing. From 2013-22, Prof Thirstrup worked asdirector and strategic consultant for NDA Group AB. From June 2022 Prof Thistrup is the Chief Medical Officer of the European Medicines Agency.
Alberto Ganan, Head of Committees and Quality Assurance, EMA
Alberto Ganan Jimenez works as Head of Committees and Quality Assurance Department at EMA. This Departments hosts the secretariat of expert panels on high-risk medical devices as well as the EMA Scientific Committees, Regulatory Affairs, Labeling and Procedures offices. After working in pharmaceutical industry, Alberto joined EMA in 2006 as Product Lead in the Quality of Medicines Office dealing with biological medicinal products and combination products. As background, he is a pharmacist and PhD on molecular biology.
Falk Ehmann,
Head of the Innovation and Development Accelerator (TRS-INO), EMA
Falk Ehmann is a medical doctor with a PhD in Experimental Medicine and expertise in European and International law. He is currently chairing the EMA’s Innovation Task Force (ITF). His main areas of expertise include Pharmacogenomics, Nanomedicines and Borderline and Combined Medicinal Products and other -omics especially in connection with Personalized Medicine. Falk worked for the EMA since 2004 including manager of Scientific Advice teams and working as Product Team Leader in the Oncology and Anti-Invectives therapeutic areas.
Michael Berntgen, Head of Scientific Evidence Generation, EMA
Michael Berntgen is Head of the Scientific Evidence Generation Department at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Amsterdam. This department supports the development of medicines to ensure generation of robust and relevant scientific evidence, also in collaboration with other stakeholders (e.g. patients, HTAs). Activities include the provision of scientific advice and methodology qualification, management of the PRIME scheme, support to medicines for the paediatric population and for orphan diseases, as well as provision of expertise and support in translational sciences. Furthermore, Michael coordinates across the Agency the collaboration with HTA bodies and payers, to foster timely access to medicines.
Melanie Carr,
Head of Stakeholders and Communication, EMA
Melanie Carr is Head of the Stakeholders and Communication Division and a member of the Executive Board at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). She joined EMA in 1996 and has held various roles in pharmacovigilance, the centralised procedure for marketing authorisation, orphan medicines, the SME office and corporate stakeholders department. In her current role she is responsible for stakeholder relations management and communication. She has a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Nottingham in the UK and worked as a regulatory professional in the pharmaceutical industry prior to joining EMA.
Monica Dias,
Head of Supply and Availability of Medicines and Medical Devices, EMA
Dr. Dias, Head of Supply and Availability at EMA since 2021, leads key initiatives including co-chairing the HMA/EMA Task Force and chairing the Medicine Shortages SPOC Working Party. With a pharmacy degree from Lisbon and a PhD from Cardiff, she joined EMA in 2004, specialising in quality for 10 years before leading policy and crisis coordination. Dr. Dias now oversees EMA's extended mandate on shortages under Regulation (EU) 2022/123.
Patrice Verpillat, Head of the Real World Evidence (RWE) Workstream, EMA
Dr. Patrice Verpillat is the Head of the Real World Evidence (RWE) Workstream at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). He is a medical doctor, specialist in epidemiology. Before joinging the EMA, he has worked during 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry where he had positions in several international companies, always dealing with real world data (RWD) and non-interventional studies (NIS) in order to bring RWE into research, access and life-cycle product management. Dr. Verpillat has published over 70 articles in Medline referenced journals. He has been involved in many organisations such as ENCePP, ICH M14 working group, European pharma association (efpia) and ISPE.
Zaide Frias, Chief Digital Officer, EMA
Zaïde Frias has degrees in Pharmacy and Business Administration. Prior to joining the European Medicines Agency she worked in Pharmaceutical Industry. She joined the EMA in 1999; she was appointed Head of Human Medicines Research & Development Support Division in 2013 and Head of Head of Human Medicines Evaluation Division in 2016. In 2020, she took the position of Head of Digital Business Transformation Task Force. The Digital Business Transformation Task Force was created to drive complex, disruptive change initiatives that have a profound impact on the strategy of EMA, its operational structure and operation in relation to the EU medicines regulatory network, its partners and stakeholders.